Tech / Special Interest → Computer Hardware Help > [hard drive] Sleep Mode Question

Re: [hard drive] Sleep Mode Question

I haven't tried Win 8 enough yet, but in Win 7 the sleep mode is fantastic.
I was one in XP to shut off hibernation by default, but in Win 7 i barely adjust anything.
The monitor shuts off and the HDD does but specific to the HDD the reason I turn it off is for power consumption.
If my computer is in hibernation or sleep goes on for more than 12 hours, I set all the hardware to shut off.
The monitor after only 30 mins or so.
I don't think keeping a monitor running is wise, but that is a view not a fact.
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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke

Yes does work properly it seems, does wake up for scheduled maintenance I think at times, but other than that, seems to wake up and sleep properly.

Think will keep using it as I was originally...

It shouldn't be bad for the drive. As long as you don't have any odd issues trying to get the system out of sleep, or the system constantly coming in and out of sleep on its own through the night, I would use it. Hard drives are mechanical and, like all mechanical things, they wear out with use. Running them a lot when they don't need to run will shorten their life. Whether it will shorten it enough to be a practical problem is a different argument but if sleep works properly on your system I would use it.

From my experience working in IT in a variety of settings I can confirm that systems may act uniquely to the sleep experience. Those that have experienced even one bad situation tend to shy away from trying it again. There are several factors to consider when discussing the longevity / health of a hard drive. One of those factors is the stop/start cycle. Every time a drive starts up it does reduce its life span a little. Another factor is the heat factor. Heat kills electronics. When the drive is running it is giving off heat. Many will argue that (as long as the heat is being dissipated appropriately) the stop/start cycles will kill a hard drive before the heat will which is an argument against sleep mode. You can find well-quoted tech authors that will argue either way but the general consensus is that you want to reduce the stop/start cycles as much as possible. The search engines have a wealth of information and discussion threads about this going back many years.

Aside from the potential health/longevity question there is nothing "bad" about having it enter sleep mode. It will spin down correctly just like a regular shutdown, it will lock the head for protection like it's supposed to. As long as the system as a whole is able to recover from the state correctly it's fine.

Personally I always enable hdd sleep on all PCs and find it to be quite reliable.

Saves energy, saves wear and tear, reduces heat.

Moral: one, or even two, ancedotal postings does not constitute solid data. I don't mean to deny Veloslave 's experience, just to say that mine is different.

All my PCs (except the backup server) are sleeping overnight, wake up to do backups, and then go back to sleep.

Oh ok, Understands then, sets hard drive sleep to never, and think should be ok after this.. And Yes after issues I've had with laptop lately--trying to make sure Desktop stays running good and healthy, currently backing up a huge music folder and misc folders

Personally I never enable hdd sleep on any OS as I find it to be very flakey when coming out of sleep and causing problems. A normal healthy hdd will last longer than you will need it to... adding going into and out of sleep (turning the hdd on and off all the time) will neither save energy or life span that will be worth the stability and speed of an hdd that is already running.

Your (opinion) milage may vary.
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Mom was right.... I NEED fiber!

It should be called Windows H8

Hi All

Normally my PC does it's backups over night, or some other maintenance, and PC usually sleeps, and after a while hard drive turns off, is that bad for the hard drive?

AMD A6-3620 APU
1tb hard drive
HP P6-2133W

If so I can switch off sleep mode right away