Who uses "Put your hard disk(s) to sleep when possible"

[EvryDayImShufln]

I was wondering, does anybody know if this causes unneeded wear and tear on your hard drive? I've heard arguments on both sides in the past for desktop drives, but I know laptop drives are built stronger and designed to take abuse, so I'm torn.

Right now my settings are:
Battery - put hard disks to sleep
Power adapter - leave them running continuously

So it's about 50/50 right now. Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you

 

[GoCubsGo]

I've been told both stories by apple retail employees. I actually do allow them to spin down I guess go to sleep. I just have it on better performance while on cable power and better battery while on battery. So if it is screwing it up then joke is on me.

 

[dextertangocci]

I do

It saves battery on my mb

 

[daneoni]

I use this option in both power and battery modes BUT set the actual sleep times differently. For power its 30 mins and for battery its the standard 10

 

[EvryDayImShufln]

now how do you possibly set the times? Is this 3d party software that gives you these options? That's exactly what I need lol

 

[Warbrain]

now how do you possibly set the times? Is this 3d party software that gives you these options? That's exactly what I need lol

For sleep? It's in System Preferences > Energy Saver.

 

[EricNau]

I do.

 

[gr8tfly]

ditto. both a/c and battery.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

First, laptop drives are not designed for 24/7 operation. They are made specifically for 'mobile' use. That means powering down often. (Even 'desktop' and 'server' drives are designed so that frequent spin-downs and spin-ups are considered 'normal', and won't harm the drive at all.) Turn it on, save some power. So every once in a while, loading something will take 0.5 seconds longer. You'll live. (Since if it was off, it meant you weren't needing disk accesses anyway.)

 

[SMM]

Never. I also have my staff disable this on all new purchases.

 

[daneoni]

now how do you possibly set the times? Is this 3d party software that gives you these options? That's exactly what I need lol

Cocktail is your friend.

 

[iW00t]

I turned that option on but I doubt it does any good, my machine is always on and downloading something, so the drives get no chance to sleep.

I intend to get Applecare at some point anyway, so it will be covered under warranty.

 

[EvryDayImShufln]

Yeah I'm going to get applecare on my 10th or 11th month of owning the laptop.

The only reason I'll wait so long is incase I drop the laptop or it gets destroyed by some means not covered by warranty: at least I'll have saved 300 bucks or whatever. Not that I plan on that, losing a 2.5k+ laptop would really suck

Cocktail seems like a very useful app, I've been looking for ways to expand upon the settings that the OS comes with. Does anybody know of any free ones or other ones that have more settings even? I don't want to jump in without doing some research first, but thanks for the link and I will most likely get it or something similar.

 

[miniConvert]

I don't sleep my hard disks in desktop systems, but in a laptop I'd likely let them sleep when in battery mode. Not on mains power, though. I don't let the drive sleep in my mini.

 

[ero87]

I don't sleep my hard disks in desktop systems, but in a laptop I'd likely let them sleep when in battery mode. Not on mains power, though. I don't let the drive sleep in my mini.

yeah, is there any point to checking "Sleep hard disk when possible" on my iMac? Should I?

 

[Nuks]

I have it checked, but what exactly does it do?

 

[iMeowbot]

now how do you possibly set the times? Is this 3d party software that gives you these options? That's exactly what I need lol

You don't need to buy Cocktail for this, or for anything else Cocktail does.

sudo pmset -a disksleep 10 will set a 10 minute delay and so on. The -a flag sets the time for all situations, you can also fine tune this using -u -b or -c instead for UPS, battery or AC operation, respectively.