Off, on, off, on, off, on, off, on... bad for the computer?

[Electro Funk]

Is all this dual booting putting extra wear and tear on my MBP's hardware? I probably dual boot ~3-4 times a day. Someone who never turns off their macs tole me that powering up is the hardest part (kinda like landing a plane)
Usually I turn off my mac at night, but now with dual booting... Im worried.

I have powered up and down my Powerbook G4 15" a few times a day every day for the last 5 years... Still running fine...

 

[disconap]

Actually, as a pilot, I will confirm that the riskiest part of flying is on takeoff. Due to the configuration of the plane at takeoff (angle of attack, power settings, flaps settings, what is in front of you (ie NOT runway)) the consequences of something going wrong at takeoff are much more severe than a plan that has a problem but is already set up to land. To clarify, it is more likely that you will damage an airplane on landing however, you are more likely to die on takeoff.

Thanks. I already hate to fly, now I get another thing to freak out about.

 

[tangent23]

so, did we come to a decision about this?

i was wondering about this today as i've been addicted to battlefield 2 and been booting back and forth three or four times a day..

i'm asssuming it's ok as it's normally a reset, not a cold boot..

 

[Makosuke]

so, did we come to a decision about this?

i was wondering about this today as i've been addicted to battlefield 2 and been booting back and forth three or four times a day..

i'm asssuming it's ok as it's normally a reset, not a cold boot..

Yes, it's fine. And even if it was a cold boot, it'd still almost certainly be fine. The thermal stresses of a cold boot are nearly identical to waking from sleep, and the strain on the mechanical parts (hard drive, fans, and screen) are functionally the same.

Hard drives are designed to withstand thousands of up-down cycles, since any modern computer can (and generally does) sleep the drive when not in use, and Apple designs its machines to be put to sleep frequently.

You want a statistically insignificant example? Where I work we have a number of computers. Several of the Windows boxes and two of the Macs (three if you count the XServe) run 24X7. Several others get put to sleep and woken several times during the day, and shut down (and flipped off at the power strip, too) every night. So far, I have seen three significant hardware failures. One was a PC power supply that was run 24X7, one was a newer cheapie PC that was never put to sleep and only shut down over the weekends that just stopped working, and one was a slot-loading G3 iMac that had the screen go out.

Bottom line: I've seen computers PC & Mac run 24X7 for 4 to 6 years without trouble. I've seen computers slept repeatedly and flipped off at the power switch every night for 4 to 6 years without trouble. I have put my G5 tower to sleep and wake it probably a dozen times a day for two and a half years without trouble.

In all likelihood your computer will be worthless before you break it doing restarts. If it does break, the chances are slim it had anything to do with the restarts.

 

[tangent23]

cheers for that.. i thought that was probably the case, but i just wanted to make sure