Linux Mint Forums

Hi,

I have one computer now with 1 SSD and 3 hard drives in it. The OS is on the SSD.

I was wondering whether the HD are "on" or spinning, when I boot the computer.

The reason I'm asking is I want to know whether the act of just turning on the computer shortens the lifespan of the HD or whether it has to be mounted and in use. Is the (let's say for example) 100,000 hour lifesapn of a hard drive based on read/write times, or just the fact that it's spinning and in some ready state.


Thanks.

Yes. Once power is applied, the disk spins even without the data cable hooked up.

You realize that even if you used the drive 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, that still amounts to around 12 years of useful life, right? And, by that time, disk technology would have moved on so much that you would be able to get 10 times the capacity/performance/speed/etc. for a fraction of what you paid for the original drive.

Thanks, but, 100,000 was just an arbitrary number (b/c I think I got it from the marketing for LCD or LED TVs lifespan as 100,000 hours). But, from what I've seen just now from searching, I think the average hours of operation is only half or less of what I originally posted.

I have a few machines which run 24/7. As a general rule, I replace disks when they reach about 30,000 runtime hours (~ 4 years) if they were not already replaced in the meantime by faster and bigger drives. Starting at this time, they become spare parts and often get an easier second life as external/testing/backup-only disks until they fail. What I mean is: do not worry about HDD life expectancy as long as you check their health and anticipate failures with S.M.A.R.T. monitoring tools.

eanfrid wrote:I have a few machines which run 24/7. As a general rule, I replace disks when they reach about 30,000 runtime hours (~ 4 years) if they were not already replaced in the meantime by faster and bigger drives. Starting at this time, they become spare parts and often get an easier second life as external/testing/backup-only disks until they fail. What I mean is: do not worry about HDD life expectancy as long as you check their health and anticipate failures with S.M.A.R.T. monitoring tools.

I realize it's late, but, thanks for the info about SMART. I looked it up and installed it. Thanks. A heck of a lot of reading to understand it though.