[OM] Re: CD, DVD lives, July 2005

[Chuck Norcutt]

Richard Lovison wrote:

  > Hi Chuck,
> 
> As I understand it, starting and stopping a drive can do more damage to a
> hard disk then  letting it run continually.  

Could be but I don't believe it... at least not on the roughly weekly 
basis that I start the backup drives.  I think heat in a continually 
operating case is the worst enemy.  An IDE drive, even one that's 
exposed to the open air gets pretty warm after awhile.  If you have a 
pair packed closely together in a typical case configuration they get 
downright hot.

I reboot my machine at least once a day so all of my drives get 
restarted frequently.  Software memory management errors are cumulative 
and I like to kill them before they kill me.  I think the best way to 
avoid them (and also save power and mechanical wear) is to reboot the 
machine frequently.  I can remember when that was a no-no with tube 
machines like the IBM 702 (10,000 tubes subject to power-on stress) but 
my modern day electronics handle it well.

Chuck Norcutt


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