I haven't seen this discussed but I would be more than very surprised to find that the hard drive is turned by a belt. I have never seen belt failure listed as a reason for hard drive failure and if it were a possibility, I'm sure I would have seen this discussed. If a machine works well when you bring it out of standby, that's fine. Many machines have problems. On one list I follow, a list member attributed such problems to drivers and said they can be resolved by upgrading drivers, if upgrades are available. I have no other information on that subject and make no representations about its accuracy. Also, I doubt it matters much if you stop the drive spinning during periods of disuse except to save a little power. I believe, and this is my opinion, not based on authoritative sources, that the amount of wear placed on a drive simply when it spins and is not doing anything else is negligible. Drives usually don't fail because of failure of the motor or the bearing. The debate about whether to leave computers on or shut them down during extended periods of disuse has been going on for years, maybe even more than ten years. I have never seen a definitive answer. The answer you got yesterday may be the best approach. However, my opinion is that, from a practical matter, it probably doesn't matter much if you leave a computer on or shut it down during extended periods of disuse. Computer components age and become less reliable simply by time passing and being used. Many computers run far longer than five years but five years is the point at which heavily used computers start to be considered increasingly more likely to have serious problems. I doubt shutting down a computer or leaving it on makes much difference in how long a computer will run. These are my opinions. I don't claim to have authoritative knowledge in the area.
Gene----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin M. Jackson" <kmjacksonsr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, September 19, 2008 11:17 AM Subject: [accesscomp] Re: a basic computer question
What I have learned from those who are supposed to be in the know is turn the computer off at night when it will not be used for some time. This they tell me will extend the life of the hard drive cause the hard drive is actually driven by a mechanical belt. During the day when I am not using the computer or if I will be away from the computer for awhile, I put the computer in stand by mode. In stand by mode the computer hard drive is not turning, the video monitor turns off and basically the computer takes a nap for awhile until I press any key on the keyboard or if a mouse driver moves the mouse around, then the hard drive starts spinning again, the monitor powers up and it is ready to go. The only caution I would have in stand by mode is some times JAWS speaks in a very deep and slow voice and I may have to turn JAWS off then on again.Hopefully this helps----- Original Message ----- From: "Desiree Oudinot" <turtlepower17@xxxxxxxxx>To: <accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 6:48 PM Subject: [accesscomp] a basic computer questionHi, I would like to know what the general consensus is for whether you should leave your computer on all the time or shut it down every day. I read an article which said that the cycle of shutting down and restarting wears the parts out faster or something, but in my opinion the parts would wear out faster if you left them running all the time. Wouldn't the computer also be more likely to overheat if you do this? I'm just curious, because I'm trying to keep this computer working as long as possible, and as wondering which would be better for it. I'm also planning to get an ftp server running in the near future, so I have a feeling my computer will be on a lot anyway. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
