[Axegrinder]

Hello, Just want to know if this type of of temp was ok for a hard disk, the disk is one of those ill fated IBM deskstar drives (20GB), the temperature is in the mid 40s on idle, and hit a max of 48c, is this too hot or ok?

Cheers

[Hybr!d]

I've always found my drives to get very hot, I now run hard drive fans and since have not had a failed drive.

[alex]

That is rather warm for a hdd to be frank.

Like Dave says: Use fans. Put a fan in front of the drive (case intake would be best). The best placement is for the drive to be at the same level as the hub on the fan. This means the majority of air will still pass over the drive, both above and below. This gives 2 benefits; 1) the drive isn't blocking the intake air to the rest of the case and 2) the drive is receiving cool air above and below it.
You can also get dedicated hdd fan bracket....err...thingys (). that mount below the drive.

[Axegrinder]

Thing is its desktop case, an old IBM netvista. The floppy drive and hard disk are mounted on the same rack. with only a couple of centimeters separating them.