HD And Sleep Mode Questions ?

[Robert11]

Hi,

Just wondering.

Have a W10 pc Desktop.
Is there any evidence or studies that show that actually putting the pc to sleep, where the HD
actually stops spinning, increases the life of the HD ?

Was wondering if stopping the spinning, and then starting up again (not good), wipes out any
possible advantage to increasing life of HD ?

Had trouble the other day in re-starting desktop pc (W10).
Any magical key combinations that is more or less guaranteed to
get things going again ?
(Keyboard and Mouse are checked for allowing them to do a re-start)

BTW: Statistically, if left always on, what is a "typical" HD lifetime ?

Regards, stay well,
Bob

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Bob,

I never use sleep mode or standby on any of my computers. I prefer to switch my computers off when not in use as even in standby/sleep mode, they are still drawing some power!.

The average lifespan of a typical HDD/SSD is determined by the usage case scenario (reads/writes) and the quality of the drive, you can search online for more refined answers if you want.

 

[bassfisher6522]

I use sleep mode....I like it and prefer it, simply because I'm on for an hour and off for and hour and do that through out my day. However, like Wolfie, when gone for any extended period of time I will turn my system off and at night when I go to bed. It's just what I do and I've been doing this for 15+ years now.

Is there any evidence or studies that show that actually putting the pc to sleep, where the HD
actually stops spinning, increases the life of the HD ?

None that I'm aware of.....but just like anything mechanical...the on/off cycle does create ware and tare on the moving parts.

Was wondering if stopping the spinning, and then starting up again (not good), wipes out any
possible advantage to increasing life of HD ?

Aside from the ware and tare, on/off cycle, normal usage and so on....Yes, it can increase the longevity of your drive....ie mechanical drive.

Had trouble the other day in re-starting desktop pc (W10).
Any magical key combinations that is more or less guaranteed to
get things going again ?

No magical key combo....but there might be an underlying issue that's causing the issue.

BTW: Statistically, if left always on, what is a "typical" HD lifetime ?

All drives are given a MTF (mean time to failure) in years. You'd would need look up you drive make/model for the specs on it.

 

[Tim Locke]

I start up my main PC when I get up and turn it off completely including the monitor and speaker when I go to bed.
The switches, router and modem are on 24/365. The laptop only turned on when I want to use it, The old PC similarly, but that one is now used for Insider stuff.

 

[Highway]

I never use that feature, it can cause severe issues with apps that only periodically access drives causing spin-up timeouts for upto 5 seconds on mechanical drives and freezes up, not so bad on a SSD or NVME but it's pointless feature nobody needs, if not in use turn the pc off, simple.

Mechanical drives are designed to run for about 6 years continously before they fail (on average) so spinning down is not required, and if anything causes more wear and tear on that device.