[LINK] Leave on, or turn off?

[Kim Holburn]

On 2006/Dec/01, at 4:21 PM, Howard Lowndes wrote:
> Kim Holburn wrote:
>> 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.
>
> Exactly, it's a parking area, not a data area, but when the disks  
> are running the heads never touch the data area - except in the  
> case of very high G.

Yeah, all that parking is not good for the heads though.

--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961