Is leaving your computer on all the time (24/7) better for hard drive?

Goji73 · Oct 3, 2012

Although this is not a current predicament, I would like to some input on this question.

Before my old hard drive went dead this past August, I got these messages that said problems where detected in the Hard Disk. As well as whenever I use to turn on and turn off my computer I would usually be greeted by a black screen with a wall of text usually ending with the option "Press F1 to Continue." I have a photo these message, but since this question is more for curiousity, I stall only post them if someone in here asks to see them.

I was told by someone in my family that it's better for a computer's hard drive and the computer itself to be running all the time (24/7) as turning it off actually does more harm or drains more energy out of the Hard Drive. However I find this statement to be incredibly debateable as while I was doing this, about a month later I was shown another blackscreen a month later that said a short message and to "press any key to continue," which did nothing but continue posting that same message.

Although a new hard drive was placed on about 2 months, just in case such a thing happens to me again... Is this statement true? Is it better for a computer to be left running all the time, or is it just better to turn it off whenever your done using it, like I have been done since getting my hard drive replaced?

kbrady1979 · Oct 3, 2012

I have absolutely no facts to back up this statement, except for first hand experience. In 3+ years, besides restarting for updates, I can count on 1 hand how many times I manually shut down my PC. It was left running day and night unless I shut it down because it was storming. Knock on wood, I've never had a HDD fail. Sometimes, hard drives fail for no apparent reason.....in fact, 99% of drive failures are for an unknown reason. The other 1% is because it was dropped or mishandled in some way. I think this may be the same debate as to whether it conserves gas to let a car idle for a period of time vs shutting it down and starting it up when you are ready to go.

Either way, sometimes you just get a bad drive, or a drive that has a premature failure that has nothing to do with power on hours. Also, just because your system is on doesn't mean your HDD is actually being hit for data......I think you'd be fine to leave it running....but like I said, I have no hard proof.

Layback Bear · Oct 3, 2012

With todays hard drives I don't think it matters.
Kbrady leaves his/her computer on and I turn my computer when not in use. It is just a personnel choice. To me turning a computer off when not in use is like turning the lights in a room off when you are not in that room. Gone 2 hours the computer and lights are off for 2 hours. Most hard drives live a long time doing it Kbrady's way or my way.

ignatzatsonic · Oct 3, 2012

This has been debated on this forum before, as well as other forums.

You aren't likely to find a large scale authoritative study of the issue.

I shut down maybe 500 times a year---mostly to save power and to avoid the slight noise of PCs---rather than for reasons of "wear and tear".

There may be something to the idea that the surge of electricity when starting has some negative effect on component life, but I have seen no proof beyond allegations.

On the other hand, moving mechanical parts generally benefit from not moving and that may apply to the bearings in your hard drive.

I probably wouldn't restart 8 or 10 times a day, but have no evidence it's harmful.

Your drive issues may well be unrelated. Drives may have a tendency to fail early---if you can get past the first month, it may last 10 years.

MilesAhead · Oct 3, 2012

I've owned many PCs from XT Clone, to 486, to Pentium III, a couple of Pentium IV, and now AMD multi-core systems. From 65 MB HD all the way up to 750 GB system disks, I've never had one fail.

I would agree the main culprit would be a drop. If you have a reason to run 24/7 such as running a server, then leave them running. Otherwise I see no reason, unless you are running an overnight video conversion or other job, to leave the system up all the time.

If you start to see disk errors or retries and want to keep the drive going to the last second, then in that case I think I'd leave it running once it's spun up.

If the drive is bad it probably got hosed during handling(dropped) rather than by starting/stopping.

Monster212 · Oct 3, 2012

i use sleep mode when i am home. if i know i am going to be gone for any length of time i turn it off.. just in case a bad storm rolls in or something i rather be safe the come home or wake up to a fried computer....

GeneO · Oct 3, 2012

No it isn't better really. I think it comes from disk drive problems are revealed when power cycling them, though the problem is there regardless.

I have 2 1TB WDC Black drives each with over 5000 power cycles and 7000 load/unload (head park) with no issues.

At work we have servers that once they boot up and programs are loaded, basically run out of RAM and don't access the disk. We have had some running with an uptime over a year only to find that the disk was shot, for who knows how long, when we rebooted them. Semi-relevant LOL.

NoN · Oct 3, 2012

A bad habits that could fail a hard drive might be also from erasing constantly at the same sector, because not filling up or empty the data on the drive could let some markers.

Perhaps some basics hard drives are not made to stay 24/7 spinning as dedicated ones for NAS or Pvr/Dvr Streaming audio/video with intelliPark fonction.

gregrocker · Oct 3, 2012

Since they've been perfected in Win7, consider using the modern Sleep>Hibernate function.

It allows you to walk away from the PC without worrying about shutting it down if you are gone for an hour or a week. If you set it to sleep at 30-60 minutes it will reawake instantly if you come back.

If you then set it to hibernate an hour or two later, it writes what you left on the desktop to the HD and shuts down all power. However it is actually only in a resume state so that it starts twice as fast next time and puts everything back on the desktop where you left it. What's not to like?

In addition I'd use Hybrid sleep so Sleep itself also writes to the HD to back up your data in case of a power failure.

smarteyeball · Oct 4, 2012

ignatzatsonic said:
This has been debated on this forum before, as well as other forums.

You aren't likely to find a large scale authoritative study of the issue.

The general consensus always tends to be that it's 50/50 on whether it's good or bad too.

There are pros and cons to both methods. But the out come is that as an end user, you can be as equally confident of reliability no matter how you use your drive.

Zepher · Oct 4, 2012

Powering up is the most stressful activity a hard drive experiences.

MilesAhead · Oct 4, 2012

Zepher said:
Powering up is the most stressful activity a hard drive experiences.

I wouldn't disagree with that. Like most things, it depends on usage. If you save nearly every machine you ever bought and add it to your local network, then you may wish to leave everything up 24/7. I'm probably similar to most users in that I'm cramped for space. Usually the PC becomes obsolete before anything major malfunctions. I didn't even start saving drives until they reached 200 GB and I bought a few docking stations. For most people the thing will be discarded because it's too slow not inability to boot.

westom · Oct 4, 2012

Goji73 said:
Before my old hard drive went dead this past August, I got these messages that said problems where detected in the Hard Disk.

Because error messages occur only on power on, the proves power on is destructive? Yes, for many. Instead, view the system (event) logs. Same problems were being reported mostly when the computer was not power cycling.

So the question, "Is power cycling destructive?" One who said so only using speculation and subjective reasoning said yes. Instead, let's read numbers. For example, the worst drive I ever saw was rated for 40,000 power cycles. That means power cycling seven times every day (even on holidays) results in a failure after ... 15 years. So power cycling is destructive. And perspective (the numbers) says nobody cares.

Why did that friend not include numbers? A majority will recommend on hearsay, myths, wild speculation ... and no numbers. A typical drive is rated for about 100,000 power cycles. Again, seven power cycles every day (including holidays) for ... 39 years.

If the answer does not include numbers, then suspect a scam. Power cycling is a myth easily promoted by junk science reasoning - answers without perspective - without numbers.

Most defects are manufacturing defects. Completely unrelated to power cycling. View system (event) logs to see that most failures occurred during normal operation.

Learn how to separate hearsay from knowledge. Subjective claims are best classified as urban myths.

TheSpirtOfRadio · Oct 4, 2012

It should be fine. Ive helped a lot of people with computer issues, and going to school for electrical engineering. specifically in the area of computers. and ive never seen a harddrive fail.
To be honest with you todays computer hardware is generally very reliable.

Carl Lawrence · Oct 5, 2012

I always turn off my PC and I never had any problems. But then it is only turned on about two-three times a day. So it is not much used, unlike some people.

NoN · Oct 5, 2012

westom said:
Goji73 said:

Before my old hard drive went dead this past August, I got these messages that said problems where detected in the Hard Disk.

Click to expand...

Because error messages occur only on power on, the proves power on is destructive? Yes, for many. Instead, view the system (event) logs. Same problems were being reported mostly when the computer was not power cycling.

So the question, "Is power cycling destructive?" One who said so only using speculation and subjective reasoning said yes. Instead, let's read numbers. For example, the worst drive I ever saw was rated for 40,000 power cycles. That means power cycling seven times every day (even on holidays) results in a failure after ... 15 years. So power cycling is destructive. And perspective (the numbers) says nobody cares.

Why did that friend not include numbers? A majority will recommend on hearsay, myths, wild speculation ... and no numbers. A typical drive is rated for about 100,000 power cycles. Again, seven power cycles every day (including holidays) for ... 39 years.

If the answer does not include numbers, then suspect a scam. Power cycling is a myth easily promoted by junk science reasoning - answers without perspective - without numbers.

Most defects are manufacturing defects. Completely unrelated to power cycling. View system (event) logs to see that most failures occurred during normal operation.

Learn how to separate hearsay from knowledge. Subjective claims are best classified as urban myths.

When shopping for parts as i'm good as i'm doing for food!!!

Looking at the lastest date it'll have to be consumed, if the package is well sealed, how it looks and how well reputated it is...will it be that sweety for my taste, and so on.

It happens i do also eat some "junk food" for my best!

I perfectly know that i will eat all that within the ten days.

But i'm never safe from dropping my dinner or burn all that, discussing on Sevenforums.

Most errors comes from me and sometimes related to Brands hiding perhaps some specs that can't handle some enhancements through the O.S.

DeaconFrost · Oct 5, 2012

Mine gets turned on a max once a day. Same for powering off. There's absolutely no reason for my computers to be running when I'm asleep, so at night they get shut down. If I am home during the weekend, and I turn it on, I will leave it on during the day, in case I will use it again.

Power-cycling many times a day will surely reduce the life of a drive. Once a day or so, is definitely not hurting the drives. Think of it like a car. Turning it on and driving it somewhere, then turning it off, isn't bad for the car. Doing it 10 times a day...is bad for the car.

Zepher · Oct 6, 2012

DeaconFrost said:
Mine gets turned on a max once a day. Same for powering off. There's absolutely no reason for my computers to be running when I'm asleep, so at night they get shut down. If I am home during the weekend, and I turn it on, I will leave it on during the day, in case I will use it again.

Power-cycling many times a day will surely reduce the life of a drive. Once a day or so, is definitely not hurting the drives. Think of it like a car. Turning it on and driving it somewhere, then turning it off, isn't bad for the car. Doing it 10 times a day...is bad for the car.

Hybrids restart the gas motor many times a day.

bobafetthotmail · Oct 6, 2012

Goji73 said:
I was told by someone in my family that it's better for a computer's hard drive and the computer itself to be running all the time (24/7) as turning it off actually does more harm or drains more energy out of the Hard Drive.

Most HDDs I know if left idle for a while stop spinning at least and some even park their reading heads (depending on how it's set in power management and/or make/model), going to "sleep" state.

The difference between this and being shut down is minimal. I frequently abuse my hardware and software (hard shutdowns, weird programs and stuff), but never dropped a HDD, and in 5-6 years over multiple machines no HDD failed. I have a couple that acted weird since the beginning (even if I couldn't find any issue with them), but closed in an external enclosure they ran fine.

Since you seem to be killing HDDs at an unreasonable rate, I suspect there is some fault in your mobo. Post the errors you are getting and maybe someone can help find the culprit.

Turning it on and driving it somewhere, then turning it off, isn't bad for the car. Doing it 10 times a day...is bad for the car.

More for the car battery than for the engine itself.

MilesAhead · Oct 6, 2012

DeaconFrost said:
Mine gets turned on a max once a day.

That's the way I do it. On in the morning, off at night. Only time I power completely down is due to an electrical storm. The land is very flat where I live. Even with UPS/surge box it's safer to power down during the lightning strikes.

Afa the energy saver drive spin down/spin up every 10 minutes. I never liked that idea. Just the inertia of spinning up a stationary platter has to produce some stress. At some point SSD will be the norm. We'll have a different argument then.

Is leaving your computer on all the time (24/7) better for hard drive?

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