Start/stop or continous run

[FMZPLAYER1]

What's better for a hard drive motor, to run constantly, or to allow it to spin down when idle?. I have a 7200 rpm Maxtor drive in a PC that is always on, with an idle setting of 10 mins. Depending on what I'm doing, or some programs are doing, this means at least a dozen start/stops in a day (not always though)

What setting do you find best for saving the drive motor from premature wear?

 

[edfair]

I prefer for any systems I am involved with to have a full time hard drive. So none of mine ever shut down.
I've never seen any evidence that having a timeout set has caused any problems. And I've never seen any problems on hard drives that I could say would not have happened if they had been idled. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.