Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!prlb2!lln-cs!sunbim!syteke!jim
From: jim@syteke.UUCP (Jim Sanchez)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Leaving Computer On
Message-ID: <211@syteke.UUCP>
Date: 24 Apr 89 08:01:08 GMT
References: <7684@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <1515@cfa.cfa.harvard.EDU>
Reply-To: jim@syteke.UUCP (Jim Sanchez)
Organization: Sytek, Inc. - European Support Office
Lines: 17

There is a basic misconception about the failure modes of hard disks.
When I was last in California I went to a user's group(ATT actually) and
they were having a talk by an outfit that actually repairs hard disks.
Among the many interesting things they told us was that hard disks are
specified with regard to START/STOP cycles and not by hours of spinning.
It turns out that there are two failure modes associated with starting
and stopping.  The first, and the one most know about, is the potential
media damage due to the head rubbing before it starts flying.  The other
and more subtle is that the torque of the motor during starting deforms
the spindle hole of each platter which eventually causes failure.

What this outfit said is that you should turn off the computer and leave
the disk drive running if you wanted to do something special.  Actually,
I turn the monitor off and leave everything else running.
-- 
Jim Sanchez  {sun,hplabs}!sun!sytek!syteke!jim OR
Sytek Brussels  mcvax!prlb2!sunbim!syteke!jim