Difference between sleep and shut hard drive down?

[computernewb]

hi i was wondering what the difference was between putting a computer to sleep and having a hard drive shut down (through power options).

thanks!

 

[hang-the-9]

Sleep usually shuts down the hard-drive as well. It also shuts down or puts in low power mode many other things like the CPU and video card. Just shutting down the hard-drive only shuts down the hard-drive.

 

[groundrat]

The difference is that the volitile memories are kept powered. Your windows sessions is suspended, not ended. So it takes less time to start back up. In sleep mode most hardware is turned off.

 

[computernewb]

Best answer selected by computernewb.