I have a secondary HDD in my laptop that doesn't serve as the boot drive. It tends to heat up significantly (up to 50°C) when it's not being used for anything—Resource Monitor shows no file activity. However, when I'm watching a movie, the temperature drops to about 35°C. I'm puzzled about why this happens. The drive's health is fine according to CrystalDiskInfo.
2 Answers
It could be related to airflow! Laptops sometimes offer better cooling from the CPU/GPU fans when you're playing videos, which might help lower the HDD's temp. Plus, 50°C isn’t alarming, but it's good to keep an eye on your drive's health.
You might want to check for any background processes that could be running while your drive is idle. Sometimes, the system performs scans when it's not in active use. When you actually use the drive, that activity might stop or get deprioritized, leading to the cooler temp when watching a movie.
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