[Question] Power Option Setting

[hmaster10]

I'm using a desktop. I just would like to ask if it is better to not enable the "Turn off Hard disk after x mins" option or it will be better enabled? Mostly my comp idles around in IRC and not doing anything.

[allen2]

Turn off disk after XX Min should be disabled unless you want to reduce your hard drive life. Most drives can power on and off without fail for at least 1 years but they have a limited number of runnung hours and power off / power on.

[TheFlash428]

Turn off disk after XX Min should be disabled unless you want to reduce your hard drive life. Most drives can power on and off without fail for at least 1 years but they have a limited number of runnung hours and power off / power on.

could you (or anyone) elaborate--that, as I read it, is contradictory.

Also, as long as this topic is up, I've always been confused about the "System Standby" and "Turn off hard disk" options. which one should be done before the other? or are these two events independant?

I always assumed that putting a system into standby essentially powered down the hard drive as well, but I've never been sure... If I have my laptop configured to automatically go into standby mode, do I need to configure the "Turn off hard drive" option?

Thanks.

Edited December 5, 2006 by TheFlash428

[Zxian]

I've gotta disagree with allen2 on this one. I'd say that it's actually better to have the disks turn off after a certain period of time. If your system is on all night, but doesn't do anything, it's better to have it turn off, then on rather than have it spinning for those 8 hours, wearing out the bearings, generating heat, etc etc etc.

@TheFlash428 - the two events are different in terms of what the system does. Turning "off" the hard drive actually only stops the hard drives from spinning, but the control circuitry on the drive is still active. This means that the system still sees the drive, but when a request is now made, it takes an extra amount of time for the drive to spin up (usually only a second or so) and then read/write the data.

Putting the system into standby puts all current processes "on hold" and shuts down the majority of the hardware systems (including the hard drive). When the system resumes, all the memory that was used is still held in RAM, so the "startup" time is very short.

Hibernation saves the current contents of RAM to the hard drive and then powers off the system. In this state, the power draw from the system is essentially zero - save the standby load of the PSU. When the system is resumed, the RAM data from the hard drive is read, and then written back to RAM, and the system returns to the way it was. This takes much less time than booting the system (all you crazy nLite-ers don't count).

[hmaster10]

Thanks Zxian, what on your opinion is a good time duartion before the hard disk is turn off? is "after 45 min" enough or should I choose lower/higher timeouts?

[allen2]

@Zxian

I may be wrong but i read some article like this: http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref...specCycles.html

And it explain clearly that drive have a maximum number of start/stop cycles. So increasing them will only reduce the hard drive life .

[Night Ranger]

@Zxian

I may be wrong but i read some article like this: http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref...specCycles.html

I think you're talking about the Retract Cycle that raise the magnetics reader component from the disk surface to prevent scratch due to contact when the HD is powered off (the old MsDos "PARK" command)

but the number of time between failures is high enough to prevent that damage if you set the power off time reasonably (1 or 2 hours for nightly HD suspend is good enough for me).

IMHO it's more dangerous the continuous HD spin off.

[hmaster10]

This is confusing, so should it be or not enabled? By the way, thanks for the replies from all of you.

[Zxian]

Sorry for the late reply on this. Finals are in season...

Anyways - to reply to the start/stop cycles allen2, I don't think that either the pure spinning or start/stop cycles will affect the life of the hard drive. Like the article says, if you start and stop your drive once or twice a day, you'll never reach the expected maximum start/stop cycles.

On the other hand - a spinning hard drive generates heat and noise. That's why tend to recommend that people have them spin down. Power consumption is less, and there's less heat going into your system. Cool hard drives are happy hard drives.

@hmaster10 - To be honest - it's up to you. You can try it both ways and see what works best for you. You're not going to hurt your system by turning that setting on or off.