TJPlajer, Is this name you would preferred to called by?... :) Whew, not meant to be long! :-(!) Or consider as a mini tutor in shallow depth? Ok, that kind of heat you have is bad for any hard drives health so we are too! Number one: bearing will wear out rapidly by hotter lube rapid breakdown. There's lot of forces on those little steel balls at 3600rpm and up. The new Cheeth series are being spun 10,000 rpm. Whew. Number two: heads/platters stickum is more likely. Number three: no longer properly aligned with both data/sector ID...more problems by thermal expansion results in data loss/ read/write errors. Occsionally blow dust ST225's series out and related that uses similar design that allow airflow through the drive and board with air hose when bezel is off. Other way to clean dust in there is bit risky becasue of that reddish flex data cable for heads is diffcult to work /w and tears easily when board/3 screws are removed. Get them installed visibly with own bezel that has air grilles. The idea is you WANT the circuit board and that two motors per drive cooled and whole drive as well instead of allowing heat to migrate though the pack. Easier on bearing lives by mounting ST225 right side up this way in a pc tower or suitable desktop case so you can see the bezels. Perferably keep case covers closed up with two or three fans blowing out back. All hd's like to be handled and mounted gently to finger tight with screwdriver on very short 3 screws, any bumps or bangs does bad business to both bearings and dings the platters by heads, that's true. Opened them up and saw hard-to-see 4 pits in retangular pattern matching size of head corners caused by simple act of screwdriver slip or 1inch drop/jars. But note, smacking the stuck drives in rotation plane with bare hands to unstick is ok. Sometimes and not seen the problem because it is minor but in long run no. Ideally, low level formatted in its final position because mounting hardware does warps the drive, yes it's true! And do it again bi-yearly. Yes, a pain but best way to assure reliable data. This process is a must with any stepper type drives but those that uses voice coil does not require this fussy work, once formatted depending on type of drive technolgoy, it's good for ever. Those newer 3.5 ones does not cares how it is positioned but they love being cooler so make sure airflow is there across them. And they do not need the LLF in IDE/SCSI 3.5" and smaller drives because it's already embedded at factory. Dusting is limited to outside casing and logic board only because the air flow is not possible between them. Cooling them all around through length-wise if mounted with platter pack up. Reasons to be so reglious about cooling and such... Lot of stickums caused by many things: Drives was allowed to run hot too long that coating softens up that protects the magnetic material that assists the lube process between head and platters during rest/spin up/down. Gets softer and more smoother that it gets simply stuck as heads gets worn smoother. Happens to many hds that was power cycled too often like 5 to 6 times a day even once day if you want hds to really last then I have few tips: Keep them happy by cooling them, handling gently/screws tightened properly and asolutely no too long screws ever, those regular pc screw is too long! Lots of hds were ruined by this and I have lots of hds to show this damges. And keep power cycles to a minium when possible. Remember the infamous stuck drives in Mac SE and mac classics? I think Mac blamed on Quantum and pulled at it for freebie recall for lube problem where I see this way: overheating and running upside down, lots of power cycles. Side note: those ST225's uses aluminum platters physically coated with mixture of magetic iron rust powder (opaqe orange colored) and epoxy which gives greenish tinge. Then spun them to even up the mixture and polished then lubing/protective coatings are applied. Then they're graded for quality based on defects and density. No longer (?) done now, all drives uses spluttered or plated platters for its greater density and harder surface. They looked transpantent (sp?) and reddish, shades of grey or clear. IBM just got past the 1gb per inch sq recently. Jason D.