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[logster]

Hi.  I have 2 ST32000542AS drives in RAID1 with Hibernation turned off but the thing still keeps going to sleep every 10 or 15 min.  Will spinning up and down damage the HD?

[JavaLawyer]

Hi.  I have 2 ST32000542AS drives in RAID1 with Hibernation turned off but the thing still keeps going to sleep every 10 or 15 min.  Will spinning up and down damage the HD?

There are many competing theories on this subject. The answer depends on which school of thought you follow. Spinning-up a hard drive creates stress on the spindle motors, which over time could shorten life expectancy. That said, keeping a drive in a constant spin-state will increases heat generation and creates other forms of stress that may impact life expectancy. Meanwhile, there's another school of thought that says that hard drives are designed to spin up/down, and are rated for x number of spin up/down cycles, so using these cycles is considered normal use.

I would think that spinning up/down every 10-15 minutes 24x7 is worse for your HDDs than keeping them in a constant spin state.

[logster]

Thanks for the reply.  I am finding that fixing the time of hibernation works so really I find that I only use the thing a few hours a day!  If the ambient temp is below 78 and the HD is hibernating, I find that the fan turns off as well!