I have an obsolete hard drive that needed to be backed up and the last time it was plugged into my computer in the drive dock it started screeching hotly which made me worry its death might be inevitable . So I immediately turned it off and didn't turn it on until I figured out how to "stay cool". That's where these cooling pads come in. I had an old CPU heatsink with a fan lying around and I figured I would wedge one of these between the heatsink and the drive case after "lubricating" them with silicon heatsink paste - supplied with pills! - would have done the job. And so it happened! I didn't bother to actually measure the temperature, but this solution kept the hard drive case comfortably cool during the backup process, which ran smoothly. Big sigh of relief! Can't say when I'll need to use them again, but having them for that purpose was a huge relief!