[LINK] Leave on, or turn off?

[Kim Holburn]

On 2006/Nov/30, at 5:50 PM, Howard Lowndes wrote:
> Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
>> again this is probably something in the engineering/quality  
>> department - factors would include whether the disk is being read  
>> or written etc.
>
> Why so?  The heads don't touch the disk surfaces and whether the  
> heads thrash more in read or write depends on the fragmentation of  
> the data, the availability of contiguous free space, and the pre- 
> seek logic of the operating system and the disk controller.

Actually this is where the turning on and off argument kicks in.  The  
heads hit the disk *every time* the disk stops spinning.  Modern  
disks have a "parking area" for the heads and will put the heads  
there even in the event if a power cut but the heads still hit the  
disk as I understand it.


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Kim Holburn
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                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961