Is timed drive power-down really needed?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JP
  • Start date Start date
J

JP

I was wondering if the powering off of drives after so many minutes/hours of
inactivity is really needed for modern quality units.

I have some large, but slightly older, hard drives that I am phasing out
with newer models. As I was replacing one, someone said that it is better to
keep drives powered on all the time, and that stop-and-go routines actually
wear them out faster. Actually my older drives also take almost 30 seconds
to awaken from an access request at times!

Besides, "technological improvements enable these drives to be on 365/24/7
as long as adequate ventilation and cooling is provided", as I heard. And,
MTBFs of drives are getting bigger, as specs on maker sites indicate.

Normally I set my monitor to power down in 1 hour and the drives are set to
do likewise in 5 hours. I am thinking of changing the power setting to never
power down my hard drives if what I heard is right.

(I am talking about the Windows power settings here and not the BIOS one)

Can anybody advise, please?

Regards and thanks in anticipation.

JP
---
 
You already seem to have the information you need to make an informed
decision.

If one were to tell you to leave the drives on all the time, and a new drive
failed after 3 months - you would be upset with the information you
received.

In one were to tell you to power down the drives after 1 hour (or whatever),
and a new drive failed after 3 months - you would be upset with the
information you received.

That being said, I power my drives down when the computer is off!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
JP said:
I was wondering if the powering off of drives after so many minutes/hours of
inactivity is really needed for modern quality units.

I have some large, but slightly older, hard drives that I am phasing out
with newer models. As I was replacing one, someone said that it is better to
keep drives powered on all the time, and that stop-and-go routines actually
wear them out faster. Actually my older drives also take almost 30 seconds
to awaken from an access request at times!

Besides, "technological improvements enable these drives to be on 365/24/7
as long as adequate ventilation and cooling is provided", as I heard. And,
MTBFs of drives are getting bigger, as specs on maker sites indicate.

Normally I set my monitor to power down in 1 hour and the drives are set to
do likewise in 5 hours. I am thinking of changing the power setting to never
power down my hard drives if what I heard is right.

(I am talking about the Windows power settings here and not the BIOS one)

Can anybody advise, please?

Regards and thanks in anticipation.

JP
Click to expand...

IMHO... if your machine is home/office workstation or server, leave the
disks spinning as long as the machine itself is powered on.
Modern disks are quiet, so noise should not be an issue.

For portables, the decision is harder.
Keeping the disk rotating consumes power, but spinning it
up consumes even more power... and yes, it wears the drive.
Also, laptop disks are very delicate and fragile, it is
recommended to spin them down before moving a laptop.
Timed off may protect the drive in case of
accidental shock when laptop is left unattended.

Regards,
--PA
 
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