"der.hans" wrote:
> 
> Am 26. Oct, 2000 schwäzte Jason so:
> 
> > The question is, will a HD tolerate high temperatures without
> > spontaneously degausing itself? The unit itself can be made to NOT
> > power up until a peltier element/fansink combination has brought the
> > HD, CPU, and other critical components to a reasonable temperature, if
> > the unit is to be kept inside an automobile (plenty of power available
> > for such things when the alternator is turning...) 
> Fan doesn't help if the surrounding air is also out of temp range for the
> device. Computers have been installed in hot climates for years, so one
> can probably find a hard drive that would work. Maybe laptop stuff? I'd
> think, however, that flash drives or microdrives would be the way to
> do. They'd also handle speed bumps at 60 better than a hard drive :).

Exactly!

Thats why I mentioned the peltier element just prior to the fansink
;-)
http://www.melcor.com has a variety of them.

One HD I own is spec'd at a maximum of 50C operating temperature.
Considering the ambient air temp was once that high in phoenix (june
92?) and often exceeds 45C, its likely that a trunk would often exceed
50C ... the big question is:

How hot can the drive get when its NOT powered up?

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