[Gllug] Disc life

[Nix]

On 2 Nov 2006, Chris Bell spake thusly:
>    A disc that is not left spinning when idle does not waste motor power or
> wear out the bearings, but when does thermal shock on start/stop become a
> significant factor in the life of the disc? Is there a recommended minimum
> period before spin-down becomes cost effective? I understand that discs that
> have previously seemed OK often just fail to recover after switch-off/on.

That depends on the kind of disk, IIRC: laptop disks (also used in mp3
players and the like) are far more robust to repeated switch-off/on
cycles than are e.g. server-class SCSI disks. (Indeed, the former may be
damaged by inadequate cooling if left on: I know my old Archos got hot
enough to burn the skin if you left the disk running for long enough.)

No numbers, sorry: anyone from the storage world around?

-- 
`When we are born we have plenty of Hydrogen but as we age our
 Hydrogen pool becomes depleted.'
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