Spin down disk or leave spinning?

[ks-man]

One of my data disks (3.5" HDD) I typically access once a day during the week for 30-60 minutes and I rarely access it on the weekend.  Is it better for me to spin this disk down after I'm done (usually a 60 minute timeout) and have it spin up the next day for the hour of use or just always leave it spinning.  I've read different things about if spinning it up and down once a day is worse for the drive than leaving it spinning 24/7.

 

Thanks for the help.

[JonathanM]

Spin up / down is less of an issue than temperature shock. If the temperature difference between spun up and spun down is small, spin them down as soon as you can, assuming they won't get spun back up minutes later. If, on the other hand, you see a huge temperature swing every time the drives spin up, I'd be less likely to spin them down.

 

Better to keep the drives warmer than ideal but at a steady temperature than to cool them way down only to heat them way up comparatively.

[ks-man]

29 minutes ago, JonathanM said:

Spin up / down is less of an issue than temperature shock. If the temperature difference between spun up and spun down is small, spin them down as soon as you can, assuming they won't get spun back up minutes later. If, on the other hand, you see a huge temperature swing every time the drives spin up, I'd be less likely to spin them down.

 

Better to keep the drives warmer than ideal but at a steady temperature than to cool them way down only to heat them way up comparatively.

 

How do I know the temperatures when they are spun down?  I only see an * in that state.  Do you mean what the temperature reports immediately after being spun up and then perhaps 20 minutes later after usage?  Thanks!

[JonathanM]

35 minutes ago, ks-man said:

 

How do I know the temperatures when they are spun down?  I only see an * in that state.  Do you mean what the temperature reports immediately after being spun up and then perhaps 20 minutes later after usage?  Thanks!

Some drives report temps regardless of spin state, others don't. Your technique would work fine.

[ks-man]

4 hours ago, JonathanM said:

Some drives report temps regardless of spin state, others don't. Your technique would work fine.

 

Thanks.  I did just test it today.  Was 30c after spun up and climbed to 35c over about 10 minutes and then stayed there for the duration of my usage.  I'm guessing this would be considered a small reasonable jumnp rather than a shock but if you feel differently please let me know.  Thanks.

[JonathanM]

Perfectly reasonable. The example I quote is I think from Tom (Limetech) himself, where he had a server in an unheated garage, spun up the drives and a large number of them failed. I forget the details, but it demonstrates that spinning up a dead cold drive is not healthy for it. 30c is warmish, 35 is just a little more warmish, NOTHING compared to spinning up a drive at 5c.

 

You didn't state the environment in which you keep the server, so I gave my best answer given limited info.