Hard Drives - Power Settings

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Err
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Hard Drives - Power Settings

Post by Err »

I'm curious. Should we leave our hard drives (spinners) on all the time or allow windows to power them down. I previously let them run 24/7. In my new build, I've let Window manage the power settings so far. I can hear the drive spin up and am wondering if that does more harm than just letting it run.

There is no consensuses on the internet. Some say it doesn't cause additional wear allowing it to power down. Some say it decreases life.
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Re: Hard Drives - Power Settings

Post by FlyingPenguin »

I can't see, from an engineering perspective, how spinning a drive down for a few hours and spinning back on could possibly put more wear on it than having it spin all the time.

There's a limited number of hours those bearings can run before failure, so why accelerate the process? Generally you want less wear and tear on the bearings, so yeah let them spin down when not in use.

Only exception would be a use-case where a system is under constant use, like a server in a server farm, or a PC that's in use for a dedicated drive-intensive function like a transcoding PC at a studio that's literally transcoding all day. If the drive is constantly in use while the machine is on then it's quite likely that spinning it down for the few minutes between jobs might cause some excessive wear due to the fact that the motor has to work harder, briefly, to spin up the drive.
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Re: Hard Drives - Power Settings

Post by Err »

Thanks. I've never had issues either way but since I'm on a new build, I thought I'd try to be a bit more efficient.
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Re: Hard Drives - Power Settings

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Re: Hard Drives - Power Settings

Post by FlyingPenguin »

I disagree with this:
For that matter, you can kill a drive by leaving it off and untouched for too long (I've actually done that).
Sorry, but modern drives don't die from not being used. That just doesn't happen anymore (early drives that parked the heads on the platter would sometimes seize up but that hasn't been the case in more than 25 years).

Data storage companies, television networks, and movie studios all use off-line hard drives for long term archival storage. You disconnect a drive and store it in a cool, dry place, it will probably be readable in 100 years assuming the technology still exists to connect to it.

And yeah, Steve Gibson is a fan of letting drives run all the time, and I do respect that even though I personally prefer to let them spin down.

I think a modern drive is much more sturdy and reliable (as far as the mechanical parts) than they were say 20 years ago, so it PROBABLY doesn't matter either way. Modern fluid bearings are pretty robust. But I still would prefer my drive spin down for the 12+ hours a day I don't use it, rather than spin needlessly.
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Re: Hard Drives - Power Settings

Post by Pugsley »

I agree with FP. As long as its not a system disc and only gets accessed a few times a day let it spin down and save the bearing and stay cool. Now if its spinning up and down every 30 minuets then I agree to leave it spin.
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Re: Hard Drives - Power Settings

Post by FlyingPenguin »

And nowadays there's almost no excuse for your boot drive not to be an SSD, so I'm assuming we're talking about a data/game/media/project drive that isn't being accessed all the time.
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Re: Hard Drives - Power Settings

Post by Pugsley »

Yeah that's how my PC is set up. IF I leave steam open then my D drive never spins down.
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