From a HDD protection stand point, is it better to leave my desktop always on for the whole day, or is it better to let it Suspend/Standby after a given period of time (say 30 minute)?
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1The hard drive spins down when the computer is idle for a certain time, whether you suspend the entire computer or not. Therefore, it shouldn't make any difference.– DennisOct 30, 2012 at 16:28
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@Dennis That probably depends on your configuration. Because my WD Gold drives controlled by Ubuntu server don't.– drctFeb 20, 2018 at 8:57
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1 Answer
That depends on your usage.
The most harm is done to a drive by spinning up after suspend/standby. The less you do that the better. But leaving it running also slowly wears parts.
If you are going into standby every 5 minutes only to wake it up a few minutes later: leave it on.
If you have to choose between standby during the weekend or leaving it on it is probably best to go to standby.
I know that these are two extremes. But we have no idea what your average usage is.
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To add here, the hard drive won't spin down by itself when it's not used unless it's a drive that comes with that power saving feature (usually called "green drives") or the user configures the operating system to do so.– M KOct 30, 2012 at 17:06
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Check. Most (all?) SATA drives come with this feature, but it is not always enabled.– HennesOct 30, 2012 at 17:26
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That depends on the manufacturer, the model and even the firmware. Which means you either 1) hope you got a manual (for a HDD: unlikely these days), 2) google for the model or 3) Probe the drive with the windows variant of hdparms or 4) boot a live CD and try it with hdparms– HennesOct 30, 2012 at 19:03