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On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 8:29 PM, Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> On 2011-10-06, Jarry <mr.jarry@×××××.com> wrote: |
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>> Hi, |
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>> |
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>> In my server I have a few disks which must be running 24/7, |
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>> but I also have a single big hard-drive, which is used only |
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>> for a few minutes every day, just for backups. How could I |
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>> power disk off when not needed (and "on" again when needed) |
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>> in order to save a little power and prolong its life? |
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> |
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> That prompts one to ask the question: Does spinning a drive up/down |
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> every day lengthen or shorten it's life compared to having it on 24/7 |
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> (assuming the same number of seeks in both cases). |
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|
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I think it is generally believed that by NOT spinning down the drive, |
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you are going to shorten its life-span. Any HDD made in the past few |
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years are designed with spin-up/spin-down when idle in mind. |
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Constantly spinning will probably wear it out faster than regularly |
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spinning up and down. It should be able to handle thousands of |
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spin-up/spin-down cycles with ease. I think SMART will tell you how |
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many times it has happened. |
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|
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In my case I disabled it because I found it to be annoying and |
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inappropriate for my RAID, but I realize I'm wasting power and |
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probably jeopardizing the long-term health of my drives by not |
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allowing them to spin-down. |
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