Do you leave your computer on?

[doc holiday]

If you think that leaving a hard disk on doesn't cause wear and tear then you've got a "self regulating" engine in your car that needs to be on right now. Get out there and start your fucking car!

Piss on what the OS likes. If you loose your hard drive you'll be the one pissed on. Your O.S. can be reinstalled. Hard drives are measured by mean time to failure and are subject to wear and tear just like blenders, transmissions, and electric toothbrushes.

sorry, but you are wrong. it's the hard drive that does not like to be shut off! always leave your externals plugged in.

there is this thing called stiction.

harddrive platters have a thin lubricating surface which allows the heads to be very close to the platter, as the drive spins this surface is pulled to the edges of the platter

the issue happens when the drive heads are parked and this layer cools and hardens. you are left with a raised area around the edge of the harddrive which the heads cannot move past rendering the harddrive useless and dead.

[H20nly]

you are left with a raised area around the edge of the harddrive which the heads cannot move past rendering the harddrive useless and dead.

You're right. To work around this issue I change my hard drive out at least every 6 years or so...

[doc holiday]

you are left with a raised area around the edge of the harddrive which the heads cannot move past rendering the harddrive useless and dead.

You're right. To work around this issue I change my hard drive out at least every 6 years or so...

to get around it, I use tape.

computers are mostly always on tho.

[DrXparaMental]

If you think that leaving a hard disk on doesn't cause wear and tear then you've got a "self regulating" engine in your car that needs to be on right now. Get out there and start your fucking car!

Piss on what the OS likes. If you loose your hard drive you'll be the one pissed on. Your O.S. can be reinstalled. Hard drives are measured by mean time to failure and are subject to wear and tear just like blenders, transmissions, and electric toothbrushes.

sorry, but you are wrong. it's the hard drive that does not like to be shut off! always leave your externals plugged in.

there is this thing called stiction.

harddrive platters have a thin lubricating surface which allows the heads to be very close to the platter, as the drive spins this surface is pulled to the edges of the platter

the issue happens when the drive heads are parked and this layer cools and hardens. you are left with a raised area around the edge of the harddrive which the heads cannot move past rendering the harddrive useless and dead.

Fascinating food for thought as always Doc. I KNOW you know your stuff when it comes to hard drives and their configurations as you have provided me much insight in times past. It seems that some experts choose one side of the fence or the other to be the best advise concerning computer longevity. Some claim that not letting the darn things spin down on a regular basis is hard on them. Others maintain that the other constant motion oriented parts in the drive wear out much quicker if left on continually. I seem to have found in the little bit of sincere research that I have done so far, that it's external aggravation that appears to be the number one hard drive killer. Unnecessary and overt vibration in desktops, as well as improper or careless handling of laptops, really tear 'em up.

Of course one HUGE consideration for us here on the forum is sheer "hot rod" internal heat build up. Many of our computers are optimally set up dedicated and configured for DAW application. In most cases this means running "bare bones" with respect to common background applications which normally monitor and proactively regulate hardware resources to best and most efficiently conserve power and cool the various system components. This also means that all the sleep, hibernation, system restore and such are turned off. Many of us are also writing directly to our drives via disabling write caching and virtual memory. In this sense as H2only stated, regular (with heavy use, every 2.5 years I would think) HD change outs should take place. All in all I would think that these systems should be shut off when not in use for prolonged periods of time because of everything running full blast constantly.

Do you see the future of hard drives moving into the (affordable please!) solid state realm, or are there possibly even more options for the consumer to consider coming up soon?

[Rogue Scrunt]

If you think it's good for your operating system to let it run run run you obviously don't know much about computers.
Computers run on electricity, which is generated mainly from burning fossil fuels, which are destroying our planet.
When you're not using your computer you need to switch it OFF, not standby, OFF.

If you feel that strongly about the topic, perhaps you should just leave yours off permanently.

[longjohns]

especially as hardware is gettig WAY more powerful than the software running on it.

even if that is true, (have doubts - it seems like developers are always using up the juice of the new machines on flashy features)...

interfacing with a computer is so frustratingly slow compared to thought process... sometimes I wonder if the promise of personal computers can ever be fulfilled.

need some implanted chips in the body or something

[Jordan Vesteyo]

My iMac is always on..... or sleeping, only reboot really on OS updates..... that us why I am a recovering windows user....... Oh the dark days

[Jordan Vesteyo]

If you think it's good for your operating system to let it run run run you obviously don't know much about computers.
Computers run on electricity, which is generated mainly from burning fossil fuels, which are destroying our planet.
When you're not using your computer you need to switch it OFF, not standby, OFF.

If you feel that strongly about the topic, perhaps you should just leave yours off permanently.

Well the fact that the planet is actually in a cooling phase...... maybe we need to keep the planet warm. Notice now its called "climate change" now not "global warming". The name changes now that the data contradicts the hysterical political agendas. The best is the cooling is caused by global warming, these are the same people that told us we were going to freeze to death in the 70's. I'm all for alternative energy.
I run cfc's bulbs/LEDS in my house, using 18watts in standby on my system is not going to kill the planet. Total up the energy of starting up the system all the time and the net capacitance drain in electricity. Not really saving much, .....

[dredd i knight]

always off as long as i remeber; sometimes when downloading defragging etc it gets left on while i'm away from it for a few hours. i feel guilty if its on for too long without being used though.
i've gotta pc and never heard about keeping ya computer on to keep it running smoothly.
yeah burning up those fossil fuels is something we're all gonna regert in about 50 years when oil starts to get really scarce.
aisling how was it off the grid man? i dream about this, but dont have the balls to pursue it!

[ethios4]

Hmmm, I've always left everything on all the time because of the (possibly mythical) idea that problems usually occur on startup or shutdown, but DrXparaMental's post made me think otherwise. There's only about 7 hours of the day I don't use my computer, so I wonder if it would be better to leave it running still or shut down?

[ThrowAway]

But what if i'm working on a big mixing/recording project and (with my old PC) it takes 30 minutes to boot the computer, load my external HD, open ableton and open project and all the huge plugins...

thats a deterrent to work. right now i only record if i've got a few hours because it takes so long to get into it.

if my machine is on with my Ableton project open its easier to come in sit down and start working right away.

If thats your problem buy a mac.





























































































j/k kinda I have no idea how long it would take live to boot up if I had a lot of plugins as I only have fm8,massive, absynth,zebra, and a few others. It takes less than 5 seconds to start up my computer and less than 7 to start live on average.

edited for more spaces.

[ThrowAway]

Bunch of eviro cunts most of you are. Im going to leave my comp on in spite of you. I just opened a 100lb co2 tank and let it out into the ozone fuck off and die. I love yous.










































Im just kidding.

[H20nly]

it's external aggravation that appears to be the number one hard drive killer. Unnecessary and overt vibration in desktops, as well as improper or careless handling of laptops, really tear 'em up.

That is true. Bashing of hard drives (while on especially) contributes to more failures than leaving them on or starting them. Hands down. Being in sync is a balance especially when you are rotating at 7200rpm I just happen to believe that its good to take a break from that.

Many of us are also writing directly to our drives via disabling write caching and virtual memory. In this sense as H2only stated, regular (with heavy use, every 2.5 years I would think) HD change outs should take place. All in all I would think that these systems should be shut off when not in use for prolonged periods of time because of everything running full blast constantly

I was being a smart ass with the every 6 years comment. My point was that they'll last at least that long unless they were garbage from the factory. 2.5 is way more like what I really apply to my system. That said I have overlooked one point in my argument... I'm talking Western Digital or Seagate. I have little if any respect for most other manufacturers. I wouldn't bet 20 bucks on a Maxtor.

I agree that turning off and on too much probably isn't good either, but when I'm done I shut down my computer. Sometimes I start working on a Friday and end up leaving it on all weekend. When its time to go to work on Monday, the iron, stove, lights, and computer are all in the off positions. I simply won't be so bold as to leave my computer running 24/7 and not expect that I'm putting unnecessary rotations on the drive platter.

[Imaulle]

if you leave your computer on then you should always do folding its for a good cause yo!

google: folding@home

[xsic]

does anybody know about the relationship between energy-consumption/burning fossils when leaving you computers/harddrives/etc on and the energy-consumption when producing new computers/hardrives ?

what i mean is : if you can make your computer "live" longer by keeping it on all the time, does it cost more energy than producing a new computer/hardrive/etc ?
and is this relevant at all ?
do hardware "live" longer when you keep it running ?
if not, all this "i leave my computer on because of workflow" to me then is irrelevant.

i really would like to know, as i don´t have a clue right now and there are so many misleadings about being ecological these days......