XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11, alt.comp.microsoft.windows   
   From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Sun, 1/25/2026 10:51 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:   
      
   >   
   > I shut down my desktop and laptop at least once a day, when I go to   
   > bed at night, and I switch them off at the wall plug, mainly to keep   
   > my electricity bill down. Even when the machines themselves are not   
   > running, the transformers consume electricity if not switched off or   
   > unplugged.   
   >   
   > My desktop computer has a couple of hard disks, and I have a funny   
   > feeling that if I leave it running all the time, even when I'm not   
   > using it, the bearings will wear out faster.   
      
   The FDB motors are frictionless.   
      
   They remain frictionless, unless the seals leak and lubricant escapes.   
   There used to be a problem like that years ago, but as best as can   
   be determined, that's been fixed. There are no more reports of   
   the disk drive companies doing accelerated life testing on those.   
   The motors tend to be made by third-parties, such as Nidec.   
   There are no field reports of drives in enclosures "jumping"   
   off the table, when they suddenly seize up. All of that trashy   
   behavior is gone.   
      
   But there are other parts of disk drives that wear, and   
   there isn't nearly sufficient information to make recommendations   
   for that.   
      
   At the 500GB level, there was one HDD which definitely did better   
   by leaving it running.   
      
   *******   
      
   Drives have TBW ratings. We don't know what they mean. However,   
   you will find an "equating" between 110TBW and 8 hour per day operation.   
   A 550TBW drive can operate for 24 hours per day. If all of the   
   platters have a hard polymer coat (a couple molecules thick)   
   over top of the platter, why are there hours-per-day limitations ?   
   The hours-per-day limitations in the past, were based on liquid   
   coatings on top of platters, where the coatings developed "ripples"   
   and it was recommended to rest the drive between sessions. No such   
   mechanism of failure exists today.   
      
   The WD Blue is 110TBW. You run that 8 hours per day.   
      
   The WD Black is 550TBW. That drive allows continuous operation.   
      
   There are also drives in the 300TBW range (whatever that means).   
      
   The drives have flying heights. The closer the sled gets to platter,   
   the more likely there will be minor wear from incidental contact. Some   
   drives have shown, in their "failure curve", a definite wear behavior.   
   The drive being more likely to malfunction at the 4th year than the 1st year.   
      
   There have been comments about drives using the dithering method.   
   When you don't use the drive, some high density drives move the heads   
   so the wear is spread out. Some drives may be "hiding" the dither, by   
   doing a self test once a minute... and that has the possibility of   
   leaving the head at a random location after the test. You would not   
   suspect the noise that drive makes, to be a dither.   
      
   *******   
      
   Summary: On balance, the answer is to turn it off,   
            but not for any particular/strong reason.   
      
            In the case of drives that don't actually have plastic landing ramps,   
            those should remain running.   
      
            Their flying heads aren't even close to the platter, and   
            they can have quite long lives. But which drives don't have   
            landing ramps is not documented. My two dead 250GB drives,   
            0.8" high 3.5" drives, had no landing ramps inside when I opened   
            them up. They land near the hub, on a laser patterned landing   
            zone. For those drives, you leave them running, rather than   
            cycling them every day. I wish I had known this, when they were   
            brand new. Now I have zero functional 250GB drives.   
      
            From an odds perspective, you are unlikely to own any drive requiring   
            "special" treatment, so just shut down at the end of the day, as you   
            are doing. Any 1" drives are likely to have landing ramps, and   
            not using contact-start-stop method.   
      
            For SSDs, shut down at the end of the day. Windows is wasting a tiny   
            amount of wear life, while you sleep, and from a purists point of   
            view, that means you turn those off. (If you are lazy, go back to   
            sleep.) On Linux, there isn't a strong incentive at the moment to   
            switch off an SSD, but... there is one case of obnoxious behavior...   
            and I am watching you, Linux.   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)