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Hard drives: To power save mode, or not to power save mode.

N

Noriaki

Lifer
First and foremost: Cost is a non-issue.

I'm curious, what is better for the electric motor in a hard drive leaving it running 24/7 with never power save mode (control panel > power management) or having it power down after X minutes of non-use.

As I said before cost is a non-issue, I just want to know which is better for the life of the my hard drive.

(Just FYI, the system runs 24/7 either way, I power off the monitor when I'm not using it, but I just wanted to know which is better for the HDD, I only powerdown briefly for reboots when Win98 has run to long to be happy anymore)
 
My old 37gnp has been running for over a year nonstop. I just bought a 75gxp and that has been up for a few weeks nonstop. I would also like to know if running the drive this much is good or bad..
 
My opinion...?
If you can stand the noise (if it makes much) it is better, IMO, to leave them on 24/7. The greatest amount of wear on spindles and bearing surfaces occurs when the device is first powered up and cold. Surface clearances are closer together causing increased wear and bearing grease or oil may have settled during shutdown.
Likewise with electrical devices such as the PCB/controller and components on the H.D.'s (same goes for monitors, ect.) one of the greatest dangers is the continuous heat-related expansion and contraction of components and especially the PCB.
However....
Most hard drives today are extremely well made in terms of MTBF and have for instance a MTBF of 500,000 hours, some SCSI drives have 1,000,000 hours or over 57 years(theoretically). Turning it off and on may take 25% off it's life but 42 years is still about 39 or 40 years longer than we will need it. 😀
I leave my H.D.'s on..(RC5!) and let the monitor power down and sleep, this keeps everything at a constant temp.
 
I agree with CRV. I have my drives spinnin' 24/7 and over the years have had no probs...the noise puts to sleep @ night 🙂 (...actually can't sleep without 'em runnin'...)
 


I say leave em spinning, and join the AT SETI team so that while they are spinning, and your not on your system........It is accomplishing something🙂
 
Dont worry fkloster i am the same.

Once you get used to those sounds (HD & Fans) you cant sleep without them.

 
Sorry DanStp but I've already been pulled over to the darkside (RC5) 😛

Thanks for the info CRV, thinking back to my physics classes oh so long ago (almost 2 years now 😉) that all makes good sense.

I know what you mean fkloster, at one time I couldn't sleep without the sound of my fans, I don't think you need therapy.

 
I'd use power saving mode but set it for a long time period, like 60 minutes, because the electronics usually do become hotter than desirable from running the motor and holding the heads in place. I've measured motor and head chips at 60 Celcius when the ambient was 25C, so think of what happens inside a computer enclosure. Any air flow at all, even just convection from vertical mounting, cuts this by at least 5C. But bearing wear and head landings and take-offs aren't really serious problems unless they occur every few minutes.
 
Leave it on. I work part time for an electric motor repair place, which my father owns and runs (in fact, he nearly lives there). Anyway, bearings suffer when the motor is being turned on.

Besides, if you're an anandtecher, you use your computer a lot. How do you decide when to have your hard drive spin down? Set it for two hours and you're probably going to start using it just as it's finally spinning down, set it for 20 minutes and it'll spin down way too frequently.
 
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