Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mailrus!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!jif!cotner
From: cotner@jif.berkeley.edu (Carl Cotner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Leaving the hard disk on continuously
Summary: How to park & UNPARK the heads?
Keywords: hard disk park
Message-ID: <12184@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 18 Jul 88 09:43:45 GMT
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: cotner@bosco.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Carl Cotner)
Organization: Math Dept., UC Berkeley
Lines: 25

After some recent discussions and testimonials on the net, I've been
convinced that I should leave my PC and hard disk on 24 hours a day
to spare it the trauma of being powerred it on and off each time I 
use the machine.  

Now I hear that I should park the heads of my disk whenever it is not in 
use to prevent data corruption from a power surge.  That sounds reasonable.
When I bought my Mountain HardDrive, the disk came with a head parking utility
for such a purpose.  Now I'm wondering how do I UNPARK the hard disk to use it
again?  

As far as I know, I have to turn off the PC and turn it back on
in order to bring up the hard disk.  However this this seems to defeat the 
purpose of leaving the computer on continuously to save wear and tear on 
the hard disk.  Can anyone set me straight?  Is there a utility to unpark a 
parked disk?

Thanks for any advice and input.

cc

PS:  I'm also leaving my monitor on 24 hours a day, but with the brightness
switch dimmed to pitch black, operating under the same assumption that
transients during power on is not good for the monitor either.  Is this
a reasonable assumption, or should I just switch the monitor off?