carltons@girtab.usc.edu (11/09/90)
I'm preparing to build a hardware project with my pc that requires leaving it on on a continuous basis. I'm concerned that leaving a HD on for 365 days a year for maybe a few years will kill it fast. Are there any more durable drives ( for realatively cheap ) out there? What kind of factors besides head crashes will damage a HD? Or, is leaving a HD on for so long crazy, and I should just forget it and boot from a floppy and write the software to do no drive accesses? -- -jackal :)
jc58+@andrew.cmu.edu (Johnny J. Chin) (11/11/90)
>I'm preparing to build a hardware project with my pc that requires leaving it >on on a continuous basis. I'm concerned that leaving a HD on for 365 days a >year for maybe a few years will kill it fast. I don't think leaving your hard drive spinning for 365 days a year will kill it. The most wear on the hard drives are at spin-up and spin-down. So, I do now think that you should be concerned about leaving the drive on. >What kind of factors besides head crashes will damage a HD? In a word, HEAT. If you plan on leaving you system on 365 days a year, make sure that the ventilation is more than adequate. In other words, keep the system cool all the time. Make sure that *NONE* of the components are more just warm to the touch. The hard drive has a tendency to be one of the hottest components in a system, so make sure you keep it cool. Heat from the drive will affect the computer system. __________ ___ / \ / / /_/ / /\/ _/ / / / __/. /__ / / / / / / / / "Happy Computing ..." / / Internet: Johnny.J.Chin@andrew.cmu.edu / ------- / 4730 Centre Ave. #412 BITnet: jc58@andrew \__________/ Pittsburgh, PA 15213 UUCP: ...!uunet!andrew.cmu.edu!jc58 Computer Dr. Carnegie Mellon University "If you don't like having backups ... try driving without your spare tire." ______________________________________________________________________________ Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are STRICTLY my own, and not CMU's.