One of the fans on a drive cage has broken down. Consequently the drive temperature of the 7200 rpm disks in that cage has risen to 50-55 degrees Centigrade (parity check is in progress at the moment). How bad is this temperature? Should I stop parity check and shutdown? Or can I use this as a extra "burn-in"?

Personally speaking, I would keep an eye on it and let the parity check continue. You certainly don't want to be running at that temp for extended periods of time though. Anything over 40C and I start looking at solutions to reduce temps.

 

I believe all drive manufacturers are different, as far as max temps go, but I'm pretty sure they are all in the low to mid 60s. Extended intervals at this temp will definitely shorten the life span of the drive though...

 

For the record, I have a couple of 7200 RPM Seagate 1TB drives that were in an external case before that were running at over 60C for over a year, and they are still chugging along in my unraid box, 2 years later (At a much lower temp of course ).

 

Also, before I had adequate cooling for my server, I would put a box fan in front of the server during parity checks. Dropped temps by a good 5-10 degrees C...

Personally, I'd pull the side of the case and stick a normal fan on it for a bit.  Kind of goofy, but stops the risk of over stressing a drive.

One of the fans on a drive cage has broken down. Consequently the drive temperature of the 7200 rpm disks in that cage has risen to 50-55 degrees Centigrade (parity check is in progress at the moment). How bad is this temperature? Should I stop parity check and shutdown? Or can I use this as a extra "burn-in"?

 

Check the drive manufacture operating temp ranges. You'd be surprised on how we all think a very high temp is, is well within operating standards of the drive. No one knows it better than the drive manufacturer.