Practical steps to read and monitor HDD and SSD temperatures with hddtemp, from one-off checks to daemonized monitoring. 06.01.2026 | reading time: 2 min Hard drives and SSDs run hotter under load, and temperature affects lifespan and performance; this short guide shows how to use the small utility hddtemp to read drive temperatures quickly and integrate the readings into scripts or monitoring systems. Quick, hands-on check Install and run hddtemp, then read a concrete output example; for Debian/Ubuntu use `sudo apt install hddtemp`, then run a check like the following: ```sudo hddtemp /dev/sda /dev/sda: ST1000DM003-1ER162: 31°C``` and if you prefer numeric output for scripts use: ```sudo hddtemp -n /dev/sda 31```. Run it as a service or script You can call hddtemp from cron or monitoring scripts, use `-n` for machine-readable numbers and `-u` to switch units, or start the built-in daemon to serve readings over TCP (default port 763) so other tools can poll the values; note that hddtemp often requires elevated privileges so run it with sudo or the package-setuid helper when integrating into automated checks. When hddtemp won't do Some NVMe drives and certain vendor implementations do not expose temperatures via the interfaces hddtemp uses, so in those cases rely on vendor tools or S.M.A.R.T. queries; also consider refresh intervals, aggregation and alert thresholds when you move from manual checks to monitoring dashboards or alerting rules. Wrap-up and next steps hddtemp is a simple, practical tool for quick temperature reads and lightweight integration; to build robust monitoring, combine it with proper alerting and alternatives for NVMe drives, and if you want to deepen Linux skills consider formal certification paths like CompTIA Linux+ or LPIC-1 and visit bitsandbytes.academy for intensive exam preparation. Join Bits & Bytes Academy First class LINUX exam preparation. utilities storage troubleshooting
