[vistax]

Hello,

yesterday I bought a new Western Digital Caviar SE 200 GB harddisk (7200, 8 mb cache).

Should I let OS X turn it off after a while or should it always be "on"?

I'm just wondering what's better for the disk's overall lifetime.

Thanks

vistax

[tooki]

Modern hard disks are designed to handle a lot of spin-down-spin-up cycles. The drive you got is rated for 50,000 cycles, which is 27 cycles a day, every day, for 5 years.

If it's the boot drive, OS X will access it frequently enough that it'll seldom ever spin down. If it's not the boot drive, then it'll only be spun up when you go to save a file.

So basically, choose the setting that's more convenient for you: have it be nice and quiet when not in use (but take time to spin up) or have it spin constantly for quick access (but make noise and consume power).

Note that leaving a drive running constantly will not damage it, either.

tooki

[vistax]

Thanks a lot!

vistax