Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!cbnewsc!olaf
From: olaf@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (olaf.henjum)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: COBOL, power cycles, and hard disks
Keywords: COBOL for PCs, acceptable power cycling, manual disk parking
Message-ID: <4005@cbnewsc.ATT.COM>
Date: 20 Oct 89 16:56:10 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 35

Thanks very much to all of you who responded to my last posting.
I now have more answers than I need to my questions on BASIC and Lotus 1-2-3
(indeed, several variations on the same answers, both of which have already
been posted to the net by somebody else).

However,

(1) I could still use some more feedback on "good" implementations
    of COBOL for PCs.
    So far, no two people have made the same recommendation!

I also have a couple of other "beginner" questions which I'd like to
get some confirmation on (i.e. I think I already know the answer, but
it would be nice to have it confirmed):

(2) My understanding is that frequent power cycling (i.e. shutting off
    the PC/AT whenever it's not in use) cannot cause damage to or
    in any other way hasten the wearing out of any part of the PC.
    Is this really true?  Or is it better for the machine to leave
    it running 24 hours a day as much as possible?

(3) I've gotten conflicting information on the necessity of manually parking
    the hard disk heads before powering down the machine.  Some
    people have told me that one should ALWAYS do this for ANY kind
    of PC or PC-clone.  Others have said that this is necessary only
    for the PC/XT due to a design flaw in the first XTs that came out,
    and that AT machines automatically park the heads correctly whenever
    they're powered down (i.e. there's no need to manually run some utility
    program to do it).  I would tend to believe the second
    account, but again it would be nice to have it confirmed.

As before, any help you might be able to provide to any one of these
questions would be GREATLY appreciated!

   -- Olaf Henjum (arpa!att!ihlpf!olaf)