Does hibernate/sleep bad for HDDs?

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by cdavisdeco, Jul 4, 2016.

  1. cdavisdeco

    cdavisdeco MDL Senior Member

    Jul 8, 2015
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    I used to put the PC into hibernate instead of shutting down when the days' work is over. And put it to sleep when I leave for a short amount of time. What I want to know is, is this bad for HDDs? Cause almost all the HDDs I used had S.M.A.R.T. errors including the ones I'm using now.
     
  2. R29k

    R29k MDL GLaDOS

    Feb 13, 2011
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    The drives shut down so shouldn't be bad.
     
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  3. ofernandofilo

    ofernandofilo MDL Member

    Sep 26, 2015
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    Whenever you use the HD, you wear a little. But it happens to all we have, not just hard drives.

    I see no reason to worry about hibernations. They are rare and short tasks. You are using your HD? Sure, but it is not demanding more than other applications.

    Anyway complete shutdowns on a regular basis seem to favor for a good system stability.

    cheers
     
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  4. LatinMcG

    LatinMcG Bios Borker

    Feb 27, 2011
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    bad hdd's on laptops i bet.. stop treating them like redheaded stepchild and the heads wont bang the disk. :tasty:
     
  5. cdavisdeco

    cdavisdeco MDL Senior Member

    Jul 8, 2015
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    But HDDs have mechanical parts and it's the bottleneck and the most unreliable part in PCs.
     
  6. cdavisdeco

    cdavisdeco MDL Senior Member

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    I'm talking about a desktop, not a laptop.
     
  7. Emma-R

    Emma-R Guest

    i have an old hdd that is used for storage. i never defrag it. other drives, same make and model, used for os, died long ago. so i put it down it luck and not defragging it.
     
  8. Michaela Joy

    Michaela Joy MDL Crazy Lady

    Jul 26, 2012
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    Many of the "power saving" features of Windows are relics from a time when continuously running a CRT monitor would destroy the guns or wear out the hardware.
    Hard drives used to cost a small fortune, and idling them down would save wear on the drive.

    These issues are no longer real, and to me, hibernation makes no sense for a desktop, especially if it's a gaming rig. (Usually, gamers shut off hibernation and go for a high-performance power configuration.)
    For a laptop, it's a different story. Hibernation saves battery life by parking the heads and shutting down the drive.

    If you have S.M.A.R.T. errors on your current drive, I suggest you back it up and consider buying a new drive. Whereas hibernation should not hurt the drive, It shouldn't be necessary on a desktop.
     
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  9. Muerto

    Muerto MDL Debugger

    Mar 7, 2012
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    #9 Muerto, Jul 5, 2016
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2021
    ...
     
  10. bpwnes

    bpwnes MDL Member

    Aug 11, 2015
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    First off, if you're running a production machine on a HDD you don't trust, you should replace the drive with a new one as soon as you find out it has issues.

    If you've never disabled Hybrid Sleep, then it will still copy contents of RAM to the HDD when it goes to sleep as well. It's useful if the power goes out while it's asleep, but other than that it's just more wear.

    I've never seen a problem with hibernation on desktops. It isn't strictly necessary as it's more designed for laptops to conserve battery on long sleep sessions. If you are running the OS on an SSD then I recommend turning hibernation off entirely.
     
  11. cdavisdeco

    cdavisdeco MDL Senior Member

    Jul 8, 2015
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    I use hibernation only for the ease of continuing what I was doing last session.
     
  12. cdavisdeco

    cdavisdeco MDL Senior Member

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    What's special with SSDs and hibernation?
     
  13. Michaela Joy

    Michaela Joy MDL Crazy Lady

    Jul 26, 2012
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    Fair enough. It works for you. :)

    and

    SSD's do not have moving parts, so they're not prone to mechanical failures like a platter drive.
    So, hibernation shouldn't make a bit of difference for SSDs.
     
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  14. LatinMcG

    LatinMcG Bios Borker

    Feb 27, 2011
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    usually hibernate is disabled by the tools like samsung magician and AS SSD benchmark to conserve space..
    and the virtual mem .sys in root also get changed smaller.
     
  15. Hadron-Curious

    Hadron-Curious MDL Guru

    Jul 4, 2014
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    I had long bade fairwell to HDD.
     
  16. bpwnes

    bpwnes MDL Member

    Aug 11, 2015
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    SSDs have a finite lifespan (maximum number of times they can be written to) so when you are using hibernation it slowly eats into the long-term life of the SSD. You can use hibernation if you really want to and it will work just fine. I personally try to limit the wear on my hardware when I can.

    Also remember that if you want to turn off hibernation, you also have to turn of hybrid sleep.
     
  17. cdavisdeco

    cdavisdeco MDL Senior Member

    Jul 8, 2015
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    Good for you. :)
     
  18. cdavisdeco

    cdavisdeco MDL Senior Member

    Jul 8, 2015
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    Thanks everyone for your thoughts. :clap:
     
  19. Hadron-Curious

    Hadron-Curious MDL Guru

    Jul 4, 2014
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    That finite lifespan still dwarves that of HDD in comparison. A SLC SDD can last 5 - 7 years with 40gb or more data written to it everyday on average. I don't see how HDD is better in that regard.
     
  20. RJARRRPCGP

    RJARRRPCGP MDL Senior Member

    Feb 24, 2010
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    Your SMART errors were possibly caused by a faulty HDD control board... (on the HDD itself)
     
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