Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:21:08 +1000 From: Norberto Meijome <numard@meijome.net> To: Roland Smith <rsmith@xs4all.nl> Cc: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: [OT] Life expectancy of powered down hard drives.... Message-ID: <431E1654.5020706@meijome.net> In-Reply-To: <20050906193214.GA20117@slackbox.xs4all.nl> References: <431D9B74.7000409@meijome.net> <20050906193214.GA20117@slackbox.xs4all.nl>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Roland Smith wrote: >On Tue, Sep 06, 2005 at 11:36:52PM +1000, Norberto Meijome wrote: > > > >>I read somewhere (sorry, cant remember where) that hard drives fail if >>not powered up every so often (not sure of time frames, but the >>discussion was about tapes still being better for backups than hard >>drives if planning for long term storage). It was also mentioned a >>"knock on the centre of the drive" to bring it back to life (??). >> >>How much truth is in this? I have EIDE drives that I havent used in >>years and I just tested them and they work fine...but again, I've had an >>instance of a new drive, used twice to backup some info and then left >>untouched for 10 months, and it wouldn't even spin up... >> >> > >When a disk spins down, the heads move to the landing zone, stop >floating on an air-cushion that forms when the platters are spinning and >come in contact with the platters. > >So the disk platters are lubricated to prevent wear and tear during >stops/starts. Now in the past these lubricants used to become sticky >over time, preventing the drive from starting up. I'm not sure if it is >still a problem these days; my workstation is on 24/7. > > gotcha, thanks - I thought it could be an issue with older drives.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?431E1654.5020706>