Will excessive power on counts kill my hard drive?

fr

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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I have had a 3TB external HD for a couple months.

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Over 1200 power-on counts already. My other drives are still in the double digits. It goes to sleep in like 3 minutes of idle. Is this bad? Can I change it somehow?
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
22,400
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www.mfenn.com
Can excessive load/unload cycles cause a drive to die early? Absolutely. However, the tricky thing is quantifying what number constitutes "excessive". I couldn't find a solid data sheet for your particular drive, but other Hitachi 3TB drives are rated for 600,000 load/unload cycles. You have a ways to go before you hit that number. Based on your usage (10 power ons per hour), you would have to run the drive for 6.8 years before you hit 600,000.