So the ones that are always on tend to fail sooner. Interesting. Would seem to contradict the "always on is better for components" theory.
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So the ones that are always on tend to fail sooner. Interesting. Would seem to contradict the "always on is better for components" theory.
Unfortunately, most of my home systems are either servers or collecting data from remote sensors 24/7/365. I turn systems off when they are not going to be in use for an hour or two in order to save electricity. It is surprising how much that reduces the monthly electricity consumption.
The systems I had disk problems with were all notebooks running 24/7/365.
IMO SCSI drives are made to to run continuously whereas consumer units are not. Remember the IBM Deskstar failures? IBM published a bulletin saying the duty cycle was (IIRC) 8 hours per day.
Personally I always turn my machines off when not in use and in my computer life I have had three fail on me.
1 Was a 256MB Maxtor
2 30GB IBM Deathstar
3 Recently a 120 GB Western Digital SATA
Replaced loads for other people though, I'd say that it's just pot luck if you get a failure, although the failure rate seem much higher with Maxtor though.
I have changed a lot of large system disk drives and disk packs when they crash... but never had any trouble over the last 10 years with my 4 PC's.
the reason they die is the envirioment they are in dirty floors or dusty rooms.not cleaning or vaccuuming your area will shorten your hard drive's life.