Question about hard drive

[farh81]

Hi!

I just bought an HP pavillion laptop that has a 60 GB (4200 rpm) hard disk. In windows XP (home edition) under 'power schemes' I can chose how long I want the laptop to wait before turning the hard disk off.

I don't care about battery life... The only thing I am thinking about now is the well-being and life time of the hard disk. I want my hard disk to live as long as possible. My question is: Is it better for the hard disk just to stay running all the time or is it better to have it automatically turn off after a certain amount of time? I'm thinking that maybe it's 'healthier' for the hard disk to stay running all the time because I'm assuming that constant stopping and starting would wear out the hard disk... right?

I would really appreciate any info on the topic... Please keep in mind that I don't know a lot about hard disks...

 

[zyberwoof]

From what I have heard, it is better to leave it running. Maybe if you have long periods where you do not use the laptop it might be fine, like when you go to sleep. But it is probably best that the hard drive isn't starting and stopping more than once or twice a day (excluding reboots for obvious reasons).

 

[deweycd]

The best plan is to set it to sleep after an hour, usually if you don't use your computer for this long, it will have time to rest. But contineous start and stop is hard on the harddrive.