is it bad to leave a laptop 2.5" HD spinnning forever?

[dpopiz]

I've had one in my desktop (with one of those adapters) for a few days. could it be bad for them to be "spun up" for that long?

 

[bigshooter]

I turn power saving off on my laptop and it's normally on 8-12 hours a day. It shouldn't be any worse than on a regular desktop hard drive.

 

[Mark R]

It should make little difference - however, some manufacturers do have recommended maximum usage levels on their drives. E.g HGST say that their travelstar drives shouldn't be powered up for more than 300 hours/month and should only be actively working for 5% of that. There are 'server grade' or 'high availability' drives available which are specifically designed for 24/7 use.

 

[vegetation]

You may notice accelerated increases in noise level. Old laptop drives love to get louder and louder.

 

[OverVolt]

Originally posted by: Mark R
It should make little difference - however, some manufacturers do have recommended maximum usage levels on their drives. E.g HGST say that their travelstar drives shouldn't be powered up for more than 300 hours/month and should only be actively working for 5% of that. There are 'server grade' or 'high availability' drives available which are specifically designed for 24/7 use.

you gotta be kidding me, i leave my lappy on 24/7 while it charges and all, and when im home on my wireless network i use it to play MP3's from and i copy TV shows that i captured with my TVtuner and move high quality MP3's back and forth, normally move about 5Gigs a day back and forth so i can watch some good shows when i go on a car trip or whatever.

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: OverVolt

Originally posted by: Mark R
It should make little difference - however, some manufacturers do have recommended maximum usage levels on their drives. E.g HGST say that their travelstar drives shouldn't be powered up for more than 300 hours/month and should only be actively working for 5% of that. There are 'server grade' or 'high availability' drives available which are specifically designed for 24/7 use.

you gotta be kidding me, i leave my lappy on 24/7 while it charges and all, and when im home on my wireless network i use it to play MP3's from and i copy TV shows that i captured with my TVtuner and move high quality MP3's back and forth, normally move about 5Gigs a day back and forth so i can watch some good shows when i go on a car trip or whatever.

I wouldn't worry about it. My power save features are always off while on AC and I leave my laptop on 24 x 7. Never had a hard drive problem yet.

 

[MWink]

I run my laptop hard drives 24/7 and it doesn't seem to be a problem. The IBM/Hitachi 40GB 5400RPM drive I had did develop a loud buzzing sound after a few months (it still worked but I RMA'd it anyway) but that's the only HD problem that could possibly have been caused by the extended running. BTW, my Inspiron 8200 (due to it's poor design) had the HD run near or above it's maximum rated operation temp (60C).