Path: utzoo!dptcdc!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!haven!mimsy!tove.umd.edu!folta
From: folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: should hard drives be left running 24 hrs/day?
Summary: Electronics like to be left on?
Message-ID: <16982@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 18 Apr 89 19:09:45 GMT
References: <1279@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu> <3950@newton.praxis.co.uk> <262@radar.UUCP>
Sender: nobody@mimsy.UUCP
Reply-To: folta@tove.umd.edu.UUCP (Wayne Folta)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, gs
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I have been told by some engineers that most failures occur when powering
on equipment.  In the initial current surge and the component warm-up,
there is a lot of stress.  This is also true with, for instance, lightbulbs,
which always seem to fail when you first turn them on.

I don't know: 1) whether this is true for motors, such as in a disk; or 2)
where the break-even point is between leaving electronics on versus
subjecting them to start-up stresses; or 3) where the break-even is between
a disk's mechanical components and electronic components.

I'll volunteer to be a guinea pig, since I leave my Mac on from the time
I come home and first use it, until I go to bed(as much as 8 hours), even if I
will be using it only intermittently during the evening.


Wayne Folta          (folta@tove.umd.edu  128.8.128.42)