Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!intercon!amanda@intercon.UUCP From: amanda@intercon.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Virtual Memory and hard disk life Message-ID: <02-Jun-89.201512@192.41.214.2> Date: 3 Jun 89 00:04:21 GMT References: <10954@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <13548@ut-emx.UUCP> <2872@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU> Sender: news@intercon.UUCP Reply-To: amanda@intercon.UUCP Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation Lines: 18 In article <10954@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>, flatmas@ladder.cs.orst.edu (Scott Timothy Flatman) writes: > What?! How can this be true? Virtual memory has to constantly switch pages in > and out of memory.In order to accoplish this the motor has to be on! This means > more wear and tear on the motor and bearings. The motor's on whenever the power is on. That's what makes the cute little whirring sound... The only piece of the drive that would get any more wear would be the head stepper motor, and I've never heard of one of them failing. In my experience, anyway, hard disk failures seem to come in a few major flavors: media failure, main power supply failure, and controller failure. I can't think of any reason that paging would make any noticeable difference on any of these. -- Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation