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Hard Drive Questions

T

thelanx

Diamond Member
My computer is usually on 24/7, and I was just wondering if it's better to have power saving turn off my hard drives after they idle for a while or to keep them spinning? Power is not an issue, so it's just what is better for the Hard Drives. Would there be more wear one way or another?

Also, when booting up, one of my hard drives makes this tzzzzzzzzzzzzzt noise, kinda like something scraping lightly but at a fast velocity against anothor. Is this a problem? As this hard drive works fine normally while it's on, it will sometimes make some more noise when stressed, but nothing like what it sounds like when starting up.

Thanks for you help!
 
as a general rule, i turn off all power saving features in the BIOS and in Windows.. Hard Drives are especially particular about power, having these features on will substantially shorten the life of your drives..

any foreign noises from your HD when booting are often the sign of a failing drive, or one that will fail soon.. I'd make sure anything important on that drive was backed up soon, and run some diagnostics on it.. check the manufactuers website for details
 
So you recommend having the drives keep spinning 24/7 rather than be shut off and then turned off when I need them?

I will do the backup asap, thanks for the info! Strange that the drive works fine after that initial noise, and I have not noticed data loss or corruption.
 
I agree with Drcool, in that I don't like the power saving features in Windows, but I don't really think that shutting down the computer when you're not using it hurts anything. I used to think that, yeah, you could seriously cut down on your hard drives life if you don't leave it on all the time. But consider that when you leave your system on all the time, your subjecting all the other components to unnecessary heat and your wasting electricity, which you'll eat on your bill every month. So I guess the point is to pick your poison.
 
Hmm, so for the hard drives themselves, it's better to keep them spinning?

Now I gotta weigh the gains and losses...
 
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