I installed several (six) hard drives over the years in my PC. Is it possible to physically label them with contents,drive label and the model label?
What I have tried: A heat proof sharpie. But the surface of the HDD is black and the sharpie was black. Text written with the sharpie is there but faded
Will an ordinary white sticker label work or it will just peel off and be a fire hazard?
Why: I want to upgrade the PC but will involve moving cables
It is perfectly safe to put glue-backed paper labels on hard drives. There is nothing inside a computer that will get hot enough to ignite paper. Heck, even hard drives themselves have paper and plastic labels adhered to them. I have labeled hundreds of hard drives with paper labels and a laser printer, as well as plastic labels from a label machine.
The only thing you might have to worry about is not covering the air pressure hole on older spinning hard drives. This usually has a sticker near it that says do not cover this hole. I was looking for an image for this and the first article I found was on HowToGeek that cited Superuser member music2myear's answer here.
I either use a sticker, write on the drive label or drive sled, or … my "sekrit weapon", a
gold metallic marker pen.
You can read it on any colour from black to white, metal or plastic. It will wear off, but not easily & certainly not mounted in a computer or stored somewhere where it's not handled every day.
I use it on everything from hard drives to mains plugs. I even use a simple blob of it to know which way up USB cables go ...because we all know otherwise they only ever fit the third way round ;)
Labels from Staples. Put on sides or end or top, wherever it would be readable without removing the drive, not on bottom. Drives are not supposed to run (for their own longevity) hot enough to change the properties of modern paper or ink (burning). If your drives are running hot enough to effect paper/ink you will be into a whole set of other problems.
