Hard Drive Use
Dec 4, 2019 14:22:29 #
I have Toshiba and WD hard drives. The Toshiba is over a year old and the WD is fairly new. So far the Toshiba has been fine(fingers crossed). However, I do have one question. Is it better to shut the hard drive down after each use or keep it running. I know that external drives are prone to failure and it would be helpful to know if there is any increased risk of failure with continually shutting down or keeping the drive connected to my computer.
Dec 4, 2019 14:52:56 #
Are these internal drives or external?
Are you talking about shutting down your computer after each use? I have 2 internal drives in my system and I leave my computer turned on 24/7 and reboot it once a week or when there are updates that need applied.
As for the 2 external drives I use...I leave them plugged into the usb on the systems and never disconnect them.
Hope that helps.
Cindy
Are you talking about shutting down your computer after each use? I have 2 internal drives in my system and I leave my computer turned on 24/7 and reboot it once a week or when there are updates that need applied.
As for the 2 external drives I use...I leave them plugged into the usb on the systems and never disconnect them.
Hope that helps.
Cindy
Dec 4, 2019 15:05:08 #
Tony, the sudden surge when turning on a hard drive is more detrimental to it than keeping it running.
--Bob
--Bob
TonyBrown wrote:
I have Toshiba and WD hard drives. The Toshiba is over a year old and the WD is fairly new. So far the Toshiba has been fine(fingers crossed). However, I do have one question. Is it better to shut the hard drive down after each use or keep it running. I know that external drives are prone to failure and it would be helpful to know if there is any increased risk of failure with continually shutting down or keeping the drive connected to my computer.
Dec 4, 2019 15:56:59 #
For over 20 yrs I have turned off both my personal and work computers, including numerous external drives, every day. Sometimes multiple times each day. I've never had a hard drive or external drive failure. Same goes for my wife, whose work laptop gets shut off every night and though she uses her personal computer at home very little it too gets shut off when not in use. Never a problem.
Early hard drives did have a number of possible failure modes that have since been corrected. In the '90's there were warnings not to restart a hard drive until it had completely stopped spinning because the input of torque at low speed could snap the motor shaft. There was even a virus at the time that did exactly that. A series of quick restarts, often causing failure. Soft start technology has cured that problem.
Early hard drives did have a number of possible failure modes that have since been corrected. In the '90's there were warnings not to restart a hard drive until it had completely stopped spinning because the input of torque at low speed could snap the motor shaft. There was even a virus at the time that did exactly that. A series of quick restarts, often causing failure. Soft start technology has cured that problem.
Dec 4, 2019 16:10:12 #
I have two external WD My Passport Ultras and a dual external dock that will accommodate both size internal hard drives.
Since they are only used for backups, I dismount and remove or power down the drives when I'm done using them. They only get used once a month or if I shoot a BUNCH of photos (like vacation).
IF I change my mind and want to use one after it has powered down, I wait two minutes before powering up again, just to be safe.
Since they are only used for backups, I dismount and remove or power down the drives when I'm done using them. They only get used once a month or if I shoot a BUNCH of photos (like vacation).
IF I change my mind and want to use one after it has powered down, I wait two minutes before powering up again, just to be safe.
Dec 4, 2019 19:47:36 #
Wayback in the day, this used to be an issue. Not too much anymore.
Dec 5, 2019 07:08:31 #
If my computer isn’t being used it shuts down per my power instructions my USB drives are attached by a port that shuts off also
Dec 5, 2019 08:33:07 #
Mostly all drives now will enter a sleep mode where the drive spins down and only the electronics are active, waiting for a wake-up signal.
Dec 5, 2019 09:43:22 #
I will just note that a large percentage of drive failures occur during start up.
Dec 5, 2019 09:52:23 #
banders26
Loc: Illinois
With harddrives with a plater there is a maximum runtime to failure, that is many years of on and off. We are talking about thousands of hours. If it is a SSD it is best to leave them on, I have had several fail because I shut them off, with common hard drive I had no problems with shutting them off and restarting for many years. I have always told people I built systems for to leave SSD’s on and you can turn off hard drive systems. I have lost track of how many systems I have built.
Dec 5, 2019 10:04:00 #
banders26 wrote:
With harddrives with a plater there is a maximum runtime to failure, that is many years of on and off. We are talking about thousands of hours. If it is a SSD it is best to leave them on, I have had several fail because I shut them off, with common hard drive I had no problems with shutting them off and restarting for many years. I have always told people I built systems for to leave SSD’s on and you can turn off hard drive systems. I have lost track of how many systems I have built.
Curious.
SSD is electronics, TV is electronics, should I leave my TV on also?
Any chance you know the MTBF for hard vs. electronic drives so as to compare?
Dec 5, 2019 10:05:07 #
I use my two externals for backing up files. Every couple of days, I turn them on, do the backup, and turn them off. I think they all go into sleep mode when they're not used for a while - at least the two I'm using do that.
Dec 5, 2019 10:38:14 #
TonyBrown wrote:
I have Toshiba and WD hard drives. The Toshiba is over a year old and the WD is fairly new. So far the Toshiba has been fine(fingers crossed). However, I do have one question. Is it better to shut the hard drive down after each use or keep it running. I know that external drives are prone to failure and it would be helpful to know if there is any increased risk of failure with continually shutting down or keeping the drive connected to my computer.
I have 5 external drives attached which are all flavors of WD. They stay on 24/7/365 even when the computer is off. The oldest is about 4 or 5 years. No problems yet. (Fingers crossed).
I have had a Toshiba or two. Very good drives.
Have had Seagates...stay away!
Dec 5, 2019 10:47:55 #
If you want to do some interesting reading, I would suggest going to www.backblaze.com For those of you who don't know, Backblaze specializes in cloud storage and they use "consumer grade" drives. Since 2013, they have been publishing data on the drive failure rates they have experienced. Makes for some interesting reading - and, by the way, these drives don't get shut down!
Dec 5, 2019 11:06:58 #
A lot depends on the drive type. Small Laptop HDs are specifically designed to stop and restart many thousands or tens of thousands of times over their lifetime, while enterprise class HDs are designed to run 24x7, and data loss can occur if you leave SSDs unpowered for long lengths of time. A couple of anecdotal points.
First, it’s difficult to get actual failure rates (yet) for HDs vs SSDs because the large server farms which accumulate the data are still majority spinning drives because of the cost/TB. The data we do have though is beginning to show the advantages of SSD reliability now that we’re past the start up phase with this type of drive. MTBFs are useless. They are typically calculated based on component type and quantity and many manufacturers refuse to post them because in the variation in the way different manufacturers calculate them. The last MTBF I saw on a HD was >250,000 hours (!) is that useful information?
Secondly, although drive technology is constantly changing, most of my enterprise customers were reluctant to spin down drives when not in use because of the high failure rate on start up. In fact, during Y2K (I was at NetApp during that time), we specifically told customers NOT to shut down their storage systems because of the high failure rate on start up. There are lots of potential failure modes, but one interesting one we found (after dissecting failed drives) was that the drives we were using parked the heads in the outside tracks during shut down after the platter had stopped. Unfortunately the magnetic material debris that flaked off the tracks over time accumulated guess where? On the outside tracks, and the heads became stuck in the debris.
Honestly, after 25 years in the storage business, I don’t know what I’d advise. Drives use air bearings now instead of lubricated spindles, so I’d probably leave my own drives up 24x7 if I ran spinning disk, but for me it’s a moot point because I have gone to all SSD.
First, it’s difficult to get actual failure rates (yet) for HDs vs SSDs because the large server farms which accumulate the data are still majority spinning drives because of the cost/TB. The data we do have though is beginning to show the advantages of SSD reliability now that we’re past the start up phase with this type of drive. MTBFs are useless. They are typically calculated based on component type and quantity and many manufacturers refuse to post them because in the variation in the way different manufacturers calculate them. The last MTBF I saw on a HD was >250,000 hours (!) is that useful information?
Secondly, although drive technology is constantly changing, most of my enterprise customers were reluctant to spin down drives when not in use because of the high failure rate on start up. In fact, during Y2K (I was at NetApp during that time), we specifically told customers NOT to shut down their storage systems because of the high failure rate on start up. There are lots of potential failure modes, but one interesting one we found (after dissecting failed drives) was that the drives we were using parked the heads in the outside tracks during shut down after the platter had stopped. Unfortunately the magnetic material debris that flaked off the tracks over time accumulated guess where? On the outside tracks, and the heads became stuck in the debris.
Honestly, after 25 years in the storage business, I don’t know what I’d advise. Drives use air bearings now instead of lubricated spindles, so I’d probably leave my own drives up 24x7 if I ran spinning disk, but for me it’s a moot point because I have gone to all SSD.
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