Power Management and hard drives

[Tripredacus]

I've recently moved to Windows 7, using a bit of hardware from my XP build. That includes 2 IDE/ATA Hard Drives. Both drives are Maxtor (20GB and 80GB) at least 8 years old but have lasted this long. Now that I have Windows 7, a default power management settings will put those drives to sleep when not in use, and as expected, wake them up when in use. This use can either be running a program, opening My Computer or when MSE decides to scan things.

My question is, concerning these drives, is about extending life even more. I sometimes think hard drives are like cars, but I may be wrong. Is it better for the drive to spin down when not in use, and spin up when needed instead of letting it spin all the time?

I will say, my computer gets really quiet (or even more quiet) when those things go to sleep.

[puntoMX]

My question is, concerning these drives, is about extending life even more. I sometimes think hard drives are like cars, but I may be wrong. Is it better for the drive to spin down when not in use, and spin up when needed instead of letting it spin all the time?

The lifespan would be the same in my eyes, start/stop cycles will not kill a drive that fast even if it would do it every 10 minutes. Car engines have a lot more parts and use combustion and oils, and with that a lot more friction (Piston rings rubbing against the cylinder walls for example (for Wankel engines on seals and "valve"), so I would not compare a combustion engine with an electronic motor. Diesel engines need to warm up and cool down, especially when it comes to a turbo driven engine.

Any way, enough about cars .