Making HDD last longer.. Turn disk off after idle?
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Any ideas on how to make HDD's last longer? Some new HDD's have some "intelli" stuff, but I'm talking about a bit older HDD's.
I had my disks to be turned off after 15min idle. Now I increased to 30min. As HDD's are mechanic almost eventually those start to crack and ultimately just brake completely.
Apparently it's not good for HDD longevity the more a disk has to turn on and off? Start and stop spinning?
With constant spinning there's something to be taken into consideration: i) power usage ii) higher temp = can lead to compromised longevity?
Any ideas?
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My solution to this a while back was to convert everything over to SSD (Solid State Drive)… Not only are there no moving parts, but because there are no moving parts, the drives will naturally last longer.
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It's not just mechanical wear, constant changes in temperature between a running and a stationary disk causes further damage over time.
I work for a tech company and look after hundreds of servers containing thousands of disks, failures occur 99% of the time after the server has been shut down for maintenance, rarely on a running disk. In my home machines I've never used spin-down on idle and run the machines 24/7 and most of my disks have lasted in excess of 10 years which is outliving their useful life as they become unfeasible to use due to small capacities or outdated connectors (most new motherboards no longer support PATA).
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So the suggestion is to keep them spinning?
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That's my recommendation, and then wait for SSD's to take over the world of storage so mechanical wear and tear becomes a thing of the past :cheers:
