frequent spinning down = disk damage?

Discussion in 'Laptop Hardware' started by haplorrhine, Aug 16, 2012.

  1. haplorrhine

    haplorrhine

    Joined:
    Aug 4, 2012
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    I can't find the link to the following concept, but I read that spinning the hard disks down and back up too frequently is bad for them. I think they said it's bad for the motor.

    I'm wondering because I wanted to find a way to spin down the disks on command to save battery juice.
     
    haplorrhine, Aug 16, 2012
    #1
  2. haplorrhine

    Ian Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2012
    Messages:
    249
    Likes Received:
    27
    There's an element of truth to that - but if you're only spinning disks down after 10mins of inactivity on a laptop, then it may be a good trade-off (power/lifespan). You may even drop the spindown time a little lower if you feel that it's likely to stay idle for a while.

    Spinning them down after 10 seconds of inactivity may shorten the lifespan significantly.

    Which OS are you using? You should be able to go in to power options and change the advanced settings to do just that. For example, on my desktop I've got my hard disk to "turn off" (i.e. spin down) after 20 mins.
     
    Ian, Aug 17, 2012
    #2
Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments (here). After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.