Can HDDs be On 24/7...?!?

[rana_kirti]

Hi,

I had a question regarding the operation of HDDs. Is it safe/alright to keep a HDD running 24/7 ? If for example you had a HDD with Data which you only need to access maybe twice or thrice a week then would you...

1. Keep it inside the CPU Case and let it run 24/7

or

2. Keep it outside in a separate External HDD Enclosure ?

So basically i'm trying to ask is it ok keep HDDs running 24/7 even if you don't need to access it very often ? How many hours is a general life span of a HDD and does running it 24/7 cause more wear and tear than keeping it in an external HDD and only switching it ON when needed ? Is it more reliable to keep a less often used HDD in an external enclosure ?

Regards,

Rana.

 

[DeathRayLoveMachine]

Yes. Whether the drive is inside your computer or in an external enclosure won't affect its lifespan (unless there's an overheating problem or you drop it or something). When the hard drive isn't in use, it will "spin down" the motor as though it were off.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Yes. Whether the drive is inside your computer or in an external enclosure won't affect its lifespan (unless there's an overheating problem or you drop it or something). When the hard drive isn't in use, it will "spin down" the motor as though it were off.

:thumbsup:

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have some WD 6400AAKS drives from 2007, that still work perfectly fine. They were left to spin 24/7, continously, for years. Personally, I think that's easiler on drive, than starting and stopping them all the time.

Witness internal HDs lasting longer than external HDs, which are turned off more often.

 

[dma0991]

I wouldn't mind leaving it running in the PC itself and it could be safer in the long run as external HDDs tend to be prone to accidents. You could just as easily spoil an external HDD by accidentally dropping it on the floor for example.

HDDs are quite reliable and should be able to run 24/7 but YMMV as it is a mechanical device, it can fail and nobody is 100% certain of when it will die. If you're worried about it dying, I'd consider making a RAID 1 array.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I've got two 200 GB WD drives and 6 WD 750 GB drives that have been on 24/7 since 2007. I had to replace one of the 750 GB drives (twice) but otherwise, all the drives are the original drives from 2007.

 

[God Mode]

What kind of lube do they use for HD motors because I want to use it everywhere

 

[corkyg]

I have some WD 6400AAKS drives from 2007, that still work perfectly fine. They were left to spin 24/7, continously, for years. Personally, I think that's easiler on drive, than starting and stopping them all the time. Witness internal HDs lasting longer than external HDs, which are turned off more often.

This!

 

[Coup27]

Officially a regular SATA hard drive is rated only for 8 hours per day usage. SAS drives are designed for 24/7 usage.

 

[Golgatha]

I wouldn't mind leaving it running in the PC itself and it could be safer in the long run as external HDDs tend to be prone to accidents. You could just as easily spoil an external HDD by accidentally dropping it on the floor for example.

HDDs are quite reliable and should be able to run 24/7 but YMMV as it is a mechanical device, it can fail and nobody is 100% certain of when it will die. If you're worried about it dying, I'd consider making a RAID 1 array.

One of my pet peeves in life is the assertion that RAID1 is a backup. RAID1 is for UPTIME and is NOT a backup of any sort. Backups consist of multiple copies in physically separate and protected locations. I would go so far as to say RAID1 helps protect one of these copies, but it is still NOT a backup.

Further reading

http://www.2brightsparks.com/tutorials/thebackupguide.html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/01/02/1546214/why-mirroring-is-not-a-backup-solution

 

[C1]

Just look up the specifications for the drive(s) of interest.

Example, in Table 3.2 (Environmental Conditions and Reliability), MTBF is specified as 1,200,00 hours for the Hitachi Ultrastar 10K300 series

and

Life: 5 years (Surface temperature of HDA is 45°C or less)
Life of the drive does not change in the case that the
drive is used intermittently.

http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/tech...40064ED37/$file/10K300_SCSI_Functional.v6.pdf

 

[rana_kirti]

thanks guys i'm inspired to have the internal option.

which 3tb HDD would be the ideal option here keeping in mind reliability, noise, power consumption and temperature in that order...?

 

[thescreensavers]

Lol I want to plug my dads old office computer in and see how many hours are on the Drive, it was virtually running 24/7 for 7 years. Its a 40gb samsung drive.

 

[Blain]

What kind of lube do they use for HD motors because I want to use it everywhere

Sperm whale oil... A renewable resource

 

[Emulex]

leave them running - important is a solid temperature and not unloading/reloading the heads too much. I disable power saving mode always. Turn off the entire machine or leave it on 100% of the time. seems to work for me. Had all kinds of trouble with ich9 and hibernation and ssd's freaking out. probably just a poor motherboard design from dell.

 

[Seven]

Always have my rig running 24/7. My oldest Barracuda has 37K hours on it.

 

[dma0991]

One of my pet peeves in life is the assertion that RAID1 is a backup. RAID1 is for UPTIME and is NOT a backup of any sort. Backups consist of multiple copies in physically separate and protected locations. I would go so far as to say RAID1 helps protect one of these copies, but it is still NOT a backup.

Further reading

http://www.2brightsparks.com/tutorials/thebackupguide.html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/01/02/1546214/why-mirroring-is-not-a-backup-solution

I would agree from the links that it does seem likely that RAID 1 is more for uptime rather than backup but that is a situation that would cover the issue with overwriting the data on the main and the auxiliary drives. I've not encountered such issues with a regular home PC.

I mainly consider RAID 1 as viable as a form of protection against drive failure in case one goes down. However this does not cover in a rare situation that both dies at the same time of which I'm assuming would not happen.

Periodical backups is definitely better in the long run compared to a RAID 1 but it is a tradeoff for the convenience of having some prevention against drive failure. Good read.

 

[taltamir]

Yes.

Correct, a drive can be on 24/7 with no harm.

Whether the drive is inside your computer or in an external enclosure won't affect its lifespan (unless there's an overheating problem or you drop it or something).

Not correct. Overheating and being dropped are the only issues with external enclosures.
the number 1 killer of HDDs is poor DC voltage and the power converters on external enclosures are crap.
Vibration is not good for it either and external enclosures are really bad with that.
Also external enclosures are notoriously bad in terms of cooling.

 

[taltamir]

One of my pet peeves in life is the assertion that RAID1 is a backup.

One of my pet peves is when people say RAID1 is not backup.

RAID1 is backup, one that has the advantage of being updated in real time (always up to date, automatically) and the (very severe) disadvantage of being susceptible for double failure due to how connected the two drives are (if your PSU shorts it will blow both drives of the RAID1 simultaneously, same for other sources of failure)

However there is no way you can define the word backup in a manner in which RAID1 is excluded. Just because its BAD (relatively speaking; it is more then sufficient if you are just backing up your porn) backup doesn't mean it isn't actually backup.

Proper data protection requires multiple different types of backup whose physical characteristics (magnetic v optical, offsite v onsite, etc) differ such that a maximum amount of disasters are covered. See my signature for ideas on that.

 

[groberts101]

I have all my raids running 24/7 without issue as well. My older wokstations 4 x 15k cheetah's were on nearly 6 years straight without ever dropping a drive or even showing a smart error. So, it can easily be done without much concern for lifespan.

and yeah,.. backup your backups to avoid losing important data just in case. Mechanical devices do fail on ocassion and it's simply smart to expect that an event such as that will eventually ocurr.

 

[Arsynic]

Enterprise-level (SCSI/SAS) drives are designed to run 24/7/365.

 

[ElFenix]

When the hard drive isn't in use, it will "spin down" the motor as though it were off.

windows used to be terrible about actually doing this. has it gotten better?

 

[frostedflakes]

Windows 7 does it. I usually just disable it so I don't have to wait a second or two for the drive to spin up when I open a song or whatever.

Keep in mind that if your HDD has the OS installed on it, stuff like the page file is probably almost constantly being accessed and the drive won't have a chance to spin down. But a drive storing media or whatever that sits idle when you're not accessing any files on it should spin down.

 

[groberts101]

Also worth noting that W7's power mgmt options are system wide. So, if you have power options set to never shut down the SSD then it will impact the HDD's attached to the system as well by reducing spindowns. The biggest issue that cannot be circumvented in many "green" HDD is that the internal power mgmt of the drive itself cannot be manipulated through W7's power mgmt settings. The price we pay for saving sometimes. Personally.. I'm too damned impatient to wait for drive spin-ups even on storage drives.. so I buy HDD that tends to consistently suck more power and therefore respond quicker when I need them. Although, caching software can help with redundantly accessed data in that regard.

 

[corkyg]

My HDDs run 24/7 - not aware of any spindown. I turn my my monitor off when I am out of the room. Also, some peripherals are off unless I wish to use them. My sense is that 24/7 makes a good UPS almost necessary for proper power conditioning. My power settings aree "always on."