Will sleep an HDD reduce/increase it's lifespan?

[YueHong]

Hi,

I am using win7 and I have the default win7 hard drive option to put HDD sleep after 20 min idle in power management settings. Therefore, my second drive which I used to store songs, movies and etc sleep frequently. However, sometimes I do play songs for a while and switch to online radio and then switch back to play song again. That's mean sometimes the drive will wake up 2-3 times each time I run the computer.

Will having the HDD sleep helps to increase it's lifespan? Does frequently wake up the drive causes harm to it?

Thanks.

 

[imaheadcase]

I've never been a fan of putting electronics to sleep. The only thing i know for sure that is worth it is monitors because of the sheer amount of heat they put off.

From a pure "last longer" route i would say no.

 

[pcunite]

I have a hard drive that is over 11 years old running in a router. Thermo expansion kills electronics ... let it run.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Just like a car, the most harmful activity for a hard drive is starting up. I think that default 20 minute setting in Windows is stupid. Horrible decision by someone at MS.

 

[corkyg]

In 23 years, I have only had 1 HDD failure - and that was several years ago. Sleep? Never! What is harmful to electronics is powering up and down. The only benefit AFAIK in sleep for a HDD is a slightly lower electric bill - maybe not even detectable.

 

[Rifter]

hard drives like being on all the time, they dont like constantly parking and unparking the heads and spinning up. Leave it on all the time.

 

[biostud]

I seriously doubt there's any difference.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

I seriously doubt there's any difference.

Well, there is. Parking the head and then turning it on is extremely stressful on its mechanics and hugely decreases the HDD's lifespan.

If you want to kill your Hard Drive from something other than a head crash due to impact, this is the best way. It's the exact reason why I avoid at all cost Western Digital's 2.5" Hard Drives. If you want a mobile HDD that will last you a long time, go for Hitachi or Seagate. Some Samsung models are good, too. The WD Scorpios park their heads every 8 seconds of inactivity no matter what you set on the Operating System. Not only does it shorten the drive's lifespan, but it also makes it a lot less responsive.

 

[KingFatty]

Seems all comments are in agreement, but are there any facts to back up this sentiment?

From what I understood, there was some study that just showed failure rates over time.

But I'm interested in knowing where this idea comes from that turning on a hard drive kills it? Is it an old wives tale, or what? How does turning on a hard drive cause harm to it?

I think hard drive failure is totally separate from "wearing out". A drive will wear out eventually, and i can see how turning on a hard drive will contribute to wearing out a hard drive, but do I care if my hard drive wears out in 20 years instead of 23 years because I allowed my hard drive to go to sleep?

 

[corkyg]

Good point - but, here's a start:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Minimizing_Hard_Disk_Drive_Failure_and_Data_Loss

 

[biostud]

Well, there is. Parking the head and then turning it on is extremely stressful on its mechanics and hugely decreases the HDD's lifespan.

Any actual facts to support it? (I'm not doubting it, but I would like to know how they tested it)

 

[corkyg]

You can spend as much time as you want reading studies in PDF format. Causes of HDD stress are well kn own and documented for decades.
http://www.google.com/search?source...=1T4GGLG_enUS316US316&q=HDD+Reliability+Tests
The answer to OP's basic question is very simply, no. The use of the sleep function does not enhance a drives lifespan.

 

[taltamir]

Sleep? Never! What is harmful to electronics is powering up and down. The only benefit AFAIK in sleep for a HDD is a slightly lower electric bill - maybe not even detectable.

Actually it varies. Sleep mode can either increase or decrease lifespan depending on the component and usage scenario. Generally speaking it doesn't make too big a difference. To answer the OP's question, in a spindle HDD it will decrease lifespan somewhat. But I wouldn't lose sleep over it. I do, however, disable the HDD going to sleep on its own on my computer because I hate the delay and noise of the HDD spinning up/down all the time. I put my computer to sleep when I do.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've started to set my computers to go into sleep mode, which spins down the HD too, after some mins of inactivity.

I will have to see if that affects the HD's lifespan noticably. I've generally kept my HDs for a reasonably long time. I replace them after about 5 years. I don't think that I've ever really had a WD HD fail on me outright, I generally sell them off after a few years as working.

I had a Seagate 500GB go south on me, lots of remapped sectors developing. Seems like it got jostled around and damaged.

Thankfully, HDs are cheap. Just remember to backup, backup, backup!

 

[dbcooper1]

In the prehistoric days when drives were more massive creatures, it just meant you got to choose how your drive died- thermal problems from excessive load from repeated spinups or to wear out the bearings. Don't know how that translates to today's miniaturized versions. Then there was the whole issue of 'stiction' for a while. Today they're cheap and plentiful; buy two, keep them backed up and try one each way and see what happens. My guess is that aside from ELF, they'll both be too small or too slow before either happens.

 

[MichaelD]

I would rather leave my gaming/main box up all the time. But if I do the room gets hot as hell. I lit it hibernate at night to save on my cooling bill and so that the room is bearable temp-wise. I have another full-size box in the room that is my NAS and that's always on. CPU/MB+5HDDS = lots of heat to begin with.

Though that may change once I get my SSD + WD Blue storage drive in. Currently my box has 3HDDs; a Velociraptor (heat monster) and two older HDs, one of which runs hot.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

to quote the mighty "many hard drives" google...

Power Cycles. The power cycles indicator counts the
number of times a drive is powered up and down. In
a server-class deployment, in which drives are powered
continuously, we do not expect to reach high enough
power cycle counts to see any effects on failure rates.
Our results find that for drives aged up to two years, this
is true, there is no significant correlation between failures
and high power cycles count. But for drives 3 years
and older, higher power cycle counts can increase the
absolute failure rate by over 2%. We believe this is due
more to our population mix than to aging effects. Moreover,
this correlation could be the effect (not the cause)
of troubled machines that require many repair iterations
and thus many power cycles to be fixed.

 

[Voo]

Had several drives in my small server that power up maybe 8-10times a day and spend most of the day idling (mostly because I'm lazy to change it and it saves a bit energy and is quieter) and so far the ancient drives in there don't seem to care too much about it.

Also contrary to what corky claims there don't seem to be (m)any studies about that topic at hand - actually his link only brings up the well known google study, which as is usual in server-class deployments are powered up and left that way - which makes it not especially useful for us as-is.. although they do indeed mention power cycles and don't show any conclusive results that support this claim.

Edit: Doh cronjob posted the whole part.. and that faster :/

 

[Emulex]

i'd be most worried about temperature change.

 

[FishAk]

My guess is that aside from ELF, they'll both be too small or too slow before either happens.

ELF? What is that?

My first thought was Extremely Low Frequency, but I don't see how that could correlate with drives becoming obsolete- and no one even uses CRTs anymore.

I would understand if you had said "an elf" or "elves"...

Otherwise, you make a good point.

 

[dbcooper1]

ELF? What is that?

My first thought was Extremely Low Frequency, but I don't see how that could correlate with drives becoming obsolete- and no one even uses CRTs anymore.

I would understand if you had said "an elf" or "elves"...

Otherwise, you make a good point.

Early Life Failure

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

this is a great question, i usually put my hds to sleep after one hour of inactivity... is this really a bad idea?

 

[Voo]

this is a great question, i usually put my hds to sleep after one hour of inactivity... is this really a bad idea?

Psht, maybe reading more than the question would've answered that