How to check hard drive temperature in Linux

Monitoring the temperature of your hard drive is essential to prevent overheating. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures can reduce the lifespan of hard drives, both traditional magnetic drives and SSDs. Keeping the temperature within a safe range can help you avoid hardware failures and data loss.

Most modern drives come equipped with sensors to measure temperature. These sensors are part of the S.M.A.R.T. system, which provides detailed information about the health of your drive. Regularly checking this information ensures you can act quickly if temperatures reach unsafe levels.

In Linux, tools like hddtemp allow you to monitor hard drive temperature easily from the command line. By using these utilities, you can make sure that your drive stays within the correct operating temperature range to avoid damage.

1. Open the terminal on your Linux system.
2. Install the hddtemp utility using the package manager.

   $ sudo apt update && sudo apt install --assume-yes hddtemp 

3. Start the hddtemp service.

   $ sudo systemctl start hddtemp

4. Enable the hddtemp service to run at startup.

   $ sudo systemctl enable hddtemp
   hddtemp.service is not a native service, redirecting to systemd-sysv-install.
   Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable hddtemp

5. List the available disk drives.

   $ lsblk | grep disk
   sda      8:0    0 465.8G  0 disk

6. Check the temperature of a specific disk drive.

   $ sudo hddtemp /dev/sda
   /dev/sda: TOSHIBA MQ01ACF050: 39°C

7. Review the temperature output to ensure it stays within a safe range.

   The safe temperature range for most drives is typically between 30°C and 50°C. Temperatures above 60°C may indicate an issue.