mrwittma@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Martin R. Wittmann) (10/22/89)
I have heard the arguments for and against leaving a PC's hard disk spinning all the time (to spare it the high stresses of powering up). And I buy them. My lab PC HD has been spinning constantly for almost 4 years, without any trouble (good ol' Seagate 225!). However, I am wondering if the same applies to laptops. Why wouldn't it? Well, I presume it's HD is designed to take more bumps and shocks and perhaps start-ups and power-downs than a desk model HD, but it might not be designed to spin on a desk day in and day out (as mine currently does... and it is making more noise than it used to!!!). What is the general collective experience on laptop HD reliability? Thanks, martin wittmann
unkydave@shumv1.uucp (David Bank) (10/23/89)
In article <11011@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> mrwittma@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Martin R. Wittmann) writes: >I have heard the arguments for and against leaving a PC's hard disk >spinning all the time (to spare it the high stresses of powering up). >And I buy them. My lab PC HD has been spinning constantly for almost 4 >years, without any trouble (good ol' Seagate 225!). > >However, I am wondering if the same applies to laptops. Why wouldn't >it? Well, I presume it's HD is designed to take more bumps and shocks >and perhaps start-ups and power-downs than a desk model HD, but it might >not be designed to spin on a desk day in and day out (as mine currently >does... and it is making more noise than it used to!!!). > >What is the general collective experience on laptop HD reliability? > >Thanks, martin wittmann Our current software contractor has a Toshiba laptop with a 20 MB (I think) hard drive. He has dropped the unit repeatedly, banged it around, and even leaves it in the trunk of his car on long road trips. All of this, of course, AFTER it has been turned off. Any decent laptop manufacturer will only put in a hard drive made to take the shocks and bumps and general abuse these little souls of computing take. This doesn't mean you can drop it from your 9th story window because your Zork character died, but if it slips off your shoulder and onto the sidewalk it shouldn't bother it. So....in general laptop hard drives (i.e. ones that the builder of the laptop SPECIFICALLY recommends for installation in their machine) are, bye and large, able to take what you dish out. Mind you this refers to a powered-down state. All bets are off if you drop it while the drive is spinning and powered up. Unky Dave unkydave@shumv1.ncsu.edu
barr@frog.UUCP (Chris Barr) (10/27/89)
Related issue: some laptops (e.g. Zenith) have a setup parameter called hard disk timeout, usually minimum 60 seconds. Whenever this period of time has elapsed without disk access, disk power is turned off, saving precious battery power, lengthening a battery- powered session. Of course, when software accesses the disk again, it's powered up. Some systems will run for only an hour or 90 mins. under battery power - this extends that.