Moving a Laptop: Ever since computers had hard drives installed, we've been told not to move the computer while it is turned on. Yet, I see people on TV and in movies carrying their...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Ever since computers had hard drives installed, we've been told not to move the computer while it is turned on. Yet, I see people on TV and in movies carrying their running laptops around while they are using them. Yes, I know some computers have SSDs, but most don't.

So, it is harmful to move a laptop around while it is running?

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

A hard drive normally is not SSD but consists of a mechanism with moving parts.

If a hard drive is in hibernation or sleep, it is supposedly locked in place so the write head does not touch the platter where the data is written.

There is no way I would ever put my desktop or laptop in sleep or hibernation with the thought of possible movement or having the power fail.

If you use sleep or hibernation, that is your choice but would not be mine.

Sarge69

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

sarge69 wrote:

A hard drive normally is not SSD but consists of a mechanism with moving parts.

If a hard drive is in hibernation or sleep, it is supposedly locked in place so the write head does not touch the platter where the data is written.

There is no way I would ever put my desktop or laptop in sleep or hibernation with the thought of possible movement or having the power fail.

If you use sleep or hibernation, that is your choice but would not be mine.

Sarge69

But what about moving a running laptop?

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

Never in my lifetime except if my house was on fire and I didn't want to wait for it to shut down.

Never - Never - Never --> Sleep or Hibernate

Sarge69

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

jerryc41 wrote:

quote=sarge69 A hard drive normally is not SSD bu... (show quote)

Good question Jerry.
Most "modern" laptops have a movement sensor that tries to protect the hardrive by parking it whenever movement is sensed.
Have you ever noticed a delay in hard drive access when working with your laptop resting on your lap everytime you move your knees?
It is not fool proof, but it does work to provide some protection.

The main danger is sudden impact movements and moving the laptop while it is writing or reading from the drive. Otherwise, there is little danger to move it while running.

But if you are buying a new laptop, the SSDs are awesome for fast start-up, but like anything electronics, they can fail just like a harddrive, and sometimes with unrecoverable results.
There is no free ride here.

BTW, hibernation mode of just fine and in my laptops usually remain in that mode all the time.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

sarge69 wrote:

Never in my lifetime except if my house was on fire and I didn't want to wait for it to shut down.
Never - Never - Never --> Sleep or Hibernate
Sarge69

I'm not sure I share your concerns regarding "sleep and hibernation" modes Sarge. Can you enlighten me further?

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

Sleep only mean the hard drive is still alive and well and the head is positioned over where you went into that mode so when you touch a key the return to your document or photos is just about instant.

Hibernation writes your RAM to the disk and will turn off the hard drive after parking the head. Turn on will result in restarting and trying to resume where the RAM wrote a note saying where it was.

Except when you bounch your laptop and the head above your data touches the data and it sorta disappears.

Sarge69

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Festina Lente wrote:

Most "modern" laptops have a movement sensor that tries to protect the hardrive by parking it whenever movement is sensed.
Have you ever noticed a delay in hard drive access when working with your laptop resting on your lap everytime you move your knees?

I have an older Dell laptop, and of that moves a bit, I get a notice that the hard drive has gone into safe mode - or something like that.

I know that when reading or writing, the drive is more vulnerable, but drives seem to have a mind of their own and read and write whenever they feel like it. Sometimes I look at my computer, and that hard drive light is flashing away, even when I'm not doing anything. Just taking care of business, I guess.

ngc1514 Loc: Atlanta, Ga., Lancaster, Oh. and Stuart, Fl.

jerryc41 wrote:

Ever since computers had hard drives installed, we've been told not to move the computer while it is turned on. Yet, I see people on TV and in movies carrying their running laptops around while they are using them. Yes, I know some computers have SSDs, but most don't.

So, it is harmful to move a laptop around while it is running?

I built a "carputer" some years back that had a 30 GB 2.5" hard drive and a CD burner in it. The carputer sat under the passenger seat in my Titan pickup and suffered all the bouncing and jostling you'd expect dragging a camping trailer around the south. Never had any problems with the machine other than cables coming loose because of the bumps.

The machine under the seat:
http://ngc1514.com/Images/car2.jpg

Yeah, you had to climb into the back seat to put a CD into the CD player....

And the display on the 7" touchscreen:
http://ngc1514.com/Images/car1.jpg

I have carried a running laptop on a floor mount stand in several vehicles for navigation and, again, the bouncing has not affected the hard drives.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

jerryc41 wrote:

quote=Festina Lente Most "modern" lapto... (show quote)

Like a cat, it is constantly gooming itself and keeping things clean and orderly.
Or, maybe it is spying on your every move and recording everything you do and see. Then sends all this information to ....... but don't worry, your hardrive is safe.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

ngc1514 wrote:

quote=jerryc41 Ever since computers had hard driv... (show quote)

Amazing! One of the SSD makers has a demo using a paint-shaking machine. The standard hard drive doesn't like those machines, but the SSD doesn't care.

ngc1514 Loc: Atlanta, Ga., Lancaster, Oh. and Stuart, Fl.

I can't wait to build my next machine with an SSD for the boot drive. The way prices keep falling, hard drives will go the same way floppy drives did.

I would say the final answer to your question is moving a laptop while it's running is fine. I just wouldn't drop it. If a laptop drive can stand bouncing around in a pickup driving down dirt roads, I don't think it's going to mind being carried from room to room.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

ngc1514 wrote:

I can't wait to build my next machine with an SSD for the boot drive. The way prices keep falling, hard drives will go the same way floppy drives did.

I would say the final answer to your question is moving a laptop while it's running is fine. I just wouldn't drop it. If a laptop drive can stand bouncing around in a pickup driving down dirt roads, I don't think it's going to mind being carried from room to room.

Right now they're small with high prices, but that should gradually change until there are no more drives with moving parts.

ngc1514 Loc: Atlanta, Ga., Lancaster, Oh. and Stuart, Fl.

That's the trend in technology, from very expensive to dirt cheap. The first box of 5.25" floppy disks I bought were single-sided, single-density and $40 for a box of 10. If my brain hasn't completely failed me, a SSSD disk gave you 130 kilobytes of storage, so the box represented 1.3 megabytes or about $30 per megabyte. The last 1.5 terabyte drive I bought was around $80. 1.5 terabytes is about 1,500,000 megabytes. It would have cost about $45 million to buy that much capacity in floppy disks back in 1979.

Technology... The only thing that keeps getting cheaper while getting better.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

ngc1514 wrote:

That's the trend in technology, from very expensiv... (show quote)

When we got our first VCR, it was very difficult to find blank tapes, and they were expensive.

Come to think of it, it's not easy finding them now, either. :D