hard disk life span power management

  • Thread starter Thread starter h4nne5
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h4nne5

hi!
i was wondering, what's best for saving hard disk's life span through
power management.
there are two main considerations i can think of:
setting power management to deactivate hard disk every 15 min or so.
this would keep the disk cooler and improve life span.
but opposing that some people say stopping and starting the hard disk
frequently is really bad and deactivate hard disk should be generally
set to never!
what do you think?
 
Dont worry overly, just plan on the hd failing when just out of warranty, or
buy one that has a three year warranty
 
ok, this might sound a bit bitchy:
isnt there someone who has something usefull to comment? :-)
and thanks for the search tip, thats exactly why i posted! if you go
trough the result you can see everyone tells something different!
 
Hello h4nne5,

I really don't (technically) know the answer to that question either, but I
set my drives to spin down after 45 minutes of idle time.

My impression is that heat as well as continuous head movement (read and
writes) are what wears out a drive.
If your concerned about your drive(s), defrag them on a regular bases, this
will minimize head movement during read and writes. Take a look at your
cooling system. Check and clean the fan, check the drive bays for clear air
passage. Maybe buy a second fan if your case will accept one.

Setting your drive to spin down after 15 minutes in my opinion might be a
little tight. Suppose you do something every 20 minutes that requires and
read or write. Now your drive is starting and stopping alot. The servo
motor that spins the disk no doubt generates more heat (per second) at
startup than when it's sitting there running under no load. Any electric
motor produces alot of torque at startup resulting in heat being generated.
I'm not suggesting the motor will not generate heat while running under
normal conditions. Just that it makes considerably more.

Maybe you can evaluate how you use your computer. If it sits there on your
desk running most of the day or evening and you leave it frequently for
extended periods of time. Let the drives spin down.

Like I said, I have mine set to shut down after 45 minutes. That seems to
work well for me. My only inconvenience is that the system will pause
(freeze) while the drive(s) spin up if it's waiting to read or write. And
that's really not a big deal for me.

My PC runs half the day and all evening. I let mine spin down.

But to get back to your question... I really don't know either... sorry...

Hope to be helpful!

Best regards,

Richard In Va.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
 
That's exactly it, purely opinions. YOU will determine what works best
for you. There are SO many variables you have not given the slightest
thought to in asking the question that any "answer" is nothing more than
a wild guess. You may as well ask what is better, a beige PC case or a
black PC case.
 
ok, this might sound a bit bitchy:
isnt there someone who has something usefull to comment? :-)
and thanks for the search tip, thats exactly why i posted! if you go
trough the result you can see everyone tells something different!
Click to expand...

That's because the only people who can really answer your question are the
folks at Toshiba, Hitachi, Seagate, etc. They run the long-term life tests
under varying conditions, collecting real actual data and seeing real actual
failures. Everything else is guessing.

As for a guess, I used to do life testing for TVs and cable boxes. Heat is
an enemy, as Richard noted. Overheating is really bad, too. But what
magnifies that problem is constantly changing heat, which makes components
expand and contract regularly. That makes TVs and cable boxes fail, I can
tell you with certainty. Based on my experience, I turn the device on and
leave it on as long as I can, assuming it receives proper airflow or
heatsinks for cooling. Or if I want to save power, I let the drives stop
spinning.

Yet another internet opinion. :-)

-John O
 
Hello JohnO,

Thanks for your added input expanding on my opinion.

My (other) opinion is with respect to gasoline/diesel engines is that the
worst thing you can do to them is start them up.
Engines are most happy when their running at a constant nominal RPM, at
normal running temperatures and under a light load.
Starting them on a cold morning (like you mentioned), causes all kinds of
thing to expand due to temperature rise. When the engine cools back down at
shut-off, things loosen up like seals and gaskets and bolts just to mention
a few. And of course all the oil drains back down to the oil pan. But then
the automotive industry does a heck of a good job when it comes to dealing
with this sort of stuff!

My PC has (4) internal hard drives, (2) of which are seldom used. However
(all) drives spin up at boot. So the 2 seldom used drives simply spin down
after 45 minutes. It's a shame that "Power Options" won't allow different
time settings for individual drives. I guess this is another argument in
favor of the USB external Hard Drive. It will only run when you turn on the
power to the enclosure. But then the disadvantage is that if it's powered
up... it's spinning all the time. It doesn't adhere to the "Power Options"
settings and it will sit there running even if the PC is turned off. At
least this is the case with mine. I leave it off unless I need it for
something... like to run a backup every month or so.

The Windows OS default configuration out of the box is set to run the drives
all the time. I've always had to change my settings.

Anyway... to get back to the question from the OP. I agree that the Tech
support people at any of the drives manufacturer's are better prepared to
answer that question. I've called Seagate Tech Support several times and
they are quite helpful.

Now I suppose that my input has pretty much put h4nne5 right back where he
started... sorry.

regards,

Richard In Va.
+++++++++++++++++
 
well thank you very much, for sharing your valuable opinions! that's
exactly what i was looking for! getting some input to make a decision.
again, thank you!

as for the pc case, obviously black is better :-D
 
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