What Happens When a Hard Drive Spins Down
When a hard drive spins down, the platters inside stop rotating and the read/write heads park in a safe position to prevent damage. This happens after a set period of drive inactivity, which is usually configurable in your operating system or hard drive settings.
Spin down is triggered to conserve power and reduce wear when the drive is not being accessed. For traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), the spindle motor spinning the platters will turn off. For solid state drives (SSDs), the controller will go into a low power state but there are no spinning platters to power down.
According to Super User, spin down can be controlled by the hard drive itself, the operating system, or the bridge chip in external enclosures. Most drives have built-in logic to trigger spin down after being idle for a set period, but OS settings usually override this.
How Long Does it Take to Spin Down?
The time it takes for a hard drive to spin down can vary depending on several factors:
Drive type – SSDs can spin down almost instantly while HDDs take longer. HDDs have to wait for the platters to stop rotating which can take 5-15 seconds on average.
Drive settings – Most drives have power management settings that control when they spin down. The timings can be customized in OS or firmware settings.
OS settings – Operating systems like Windows and Linux also have power management settings that can override drive settings. This allows spin down times to be controlled globally.
Age of drive – Older HDDs tend to take slightly longer to spin down as the motors and mechanics wear down over time.
Drive usage – A drive that was heavily used will retain more heat in its platters and take longer to cool down and stop spinning.
Drive size – Larger 3.5″ desktop drives tend to have higher rotational mass and take marginally longer to spin down than 2.5″ notebook drives.
On average, most modern 7200rpm HDDs will spin down within 5-15 seconds after being powered off or going idle. Some older or larger drives can take up to 30 seconds. SSDs and flash drives can spin down instantly as they have no rotating platters.
Average Spin Down Times
The amount of time it takes for a hard drive to spin down varies depending on the type of drive. Here are some general averages:
HDD (Hard Disk Drive): Most modern HDDs will spin down within 5-15 seconds after being powered off or instructed to spin down. Older HDDs could take over a minute to spin down completely (SuperUser).
SSD (Solid State Drive): SSDs can spin down almost instantly, in under 1 second, as they have no physical platters to slow down. However, some SSDs will wait 5-10 seconds before spinning down to flush cached writes (Reddit).
External HDD: External hard drives not being actively used will spin down more aggressively, usually between 3-10 seconds. This helps conserve power when running off bus power (Wikipedia).
So in summary, newer internal HDDs average 5-15 seconds, SSDs are near instant, and external HDDs 3-10 seconds to fully spin down after idle or shutdown.
SSD vs HDD Spin Down
When comparing SSD and HDD spin down times, SSDs are much faster. While HDDs can take anywhere from 5-15 seconds to spin down completely, SSDs can power down in just milliseconds to a few seconds.
This is because SSDs have no moving mechanical parts. They are based on flash memory chips rather than spinning magnetic platters. So when an SSD is idle, it can enter a low power state almost instantly without having to physically spin down like a traditional hard drive.
According to Quora, the average power down time for a solid state drive is just a few milliseconds up to 1-2 seconds at most. Whereas tests show HDDs can take 8-15 seconds to fully spin down their platters before going into sleep mode. This makes SSDs much more power efficient.
The faster spin down time is one of the advantages SSDs have over traditional HDDs. It allows them to extend battery life on laptops and reduce energy use on desktop computers. However, constantly spinning up HDDs does put more strain on the motor and can reduce longevity over time. But periodic spin downs to save power are considered normal HDD behavior.
Effects of Spin Down
When a hard drive spins down, the platters inside stop rotating which powers down the drive and conserves energy. According to Truenas, spinning drives up and down does add some additional strain compared to leaving them spinning continuously. However, as long as the drives aren’t cycling up and down multiple times per hour, the strain is considered minimal.
Some users on Reddit also note that repeated spin ups may wear down the drive motor slightly faster. But again, moderate spin downs are not considered very harmful overall. One key point is that spin downs can significantly reduce power consumption and drive temperatures during idle periods.
According to Superuser, spin downs and spin ups do add more stress than continuous spinning. However, modern drives are designed to handle thousands of these cycles. So periodic spin downs to save power are considered safe for most usage patterns.
Spin Down vs Sleep/Hibernate
There are some key differences between a hard drive spinning down and a computer going into sleep or hibernate mode:
Spin down refers specifically to the hard drive motor powering off after a period of inactivity. The disks stop spinning and the drive goes into a low power state. This is controlled at the hardware or OS level. According to Reddit users, allowing spin down can help conserve power on devices like NAS boxes when the drives are idle.
Sleep and hibernate are system-wide low power states for the entire computer. In sleep mode, current data is saved to RAM while hardware components like the hard drive are shut off. In hibernate mode, data is written to the hard drive before completely powering down. When waking from sleep or hibernate, the system restores to its previous state. The hard drive may spin down independently when the system goes into these low power states.
The main difference is spin down only affects the hard drive, while sleep and hibernate put the entire computer into a low power mode. Hard drive spin down happens on a more granular level.
How to Control Spin Down
There are a few ways you can control when your hard drive spins down:
Operating System Settings
Most operating systems like Windows, macOS, and Linux allow you to configure power settings that control when the hard drive will spin down. In Windows, you can access these settings through the Power Options control panel. There you can change the “Turn off hard disk after” setting to control the idle time before spin down occurs.
However, this setting changes the spin down time for all drives connected to your system. There is no built-in way in Windows to set spin down times per individual drive (1).
Third Party Software
If you want more granular control per drive, third party software like HDDScan or CrystalDiskInfo allow you to configure spin down and power save settings for each individual hard drive. This gives you more flexibility if you want certain drives to spin down faster than others.
Some external hard drives also come with their own power management software that overrides the system-wide settings.
So in summary, OS settings control spin down globally while third party software is required for per-drive control.
Pros and Cons of Spin Down
There are several benefits as well as potential drawbacks to allowing a hard drive to spin down when not in use.
Some of the key benefits of spin down include:
- Reduced power consumption and electricity costs – Spinning drives use a lot of power, so allowing them to spin down can provide noticeable energy savings.
- Less noise – Spinning drives generate noise from the physical motion. Letting them spin down eliminates this nuisance when idle.
- Reduced heat output – Spinning disks generate heat that requires active cooling. Less spin time means less heat generated.
- Potentially longer service life – The mechanical wear from spinning may degrade drive components over time. More spin down equals less cumulative wear and tear.
However, there are also some potential downsides to consider with aggressive spin down settings:
- Increased wear from spin up/down cycles – Frequently stopping and starting the drive can stress components.
- Latency on wake up – It takes time for the drive to spool back up when needed, introducing delays.
- Premature failure risk – Some drives are more prone to failure when spun up from cold states.
- Accidental removal – Users may forget the drive is spun down and disconnect it, causing issues.
Overall, allowing hard drives to spin down seems to provide more benefits than drawbacks in most use cases. But tuning the timing aggressiveness to balance pros and cons for a particular setup may yield optimal reliability.
Spin Down Troubleshooting
If a hard drive is not spinning down properly, there are some troubleshooting steps you can take to try and resolve the issue:
- Check the power settings – Make sure your operating system power plan is set to spin down the hard drive after a certain period of inactivity. This is usually set to 20 minutes by default in Windows.
- Update drivers – Outdated disk drivers can sometimes prevent spin down. Update to the latest drivers for your hard drive or SATA controller.
- Disable indexing – Windows Indexing service can periodically access the hard drive, preventing spin down. Temporarily disabling indexing may help.
- Close open programs – Any programs that frequently access the hard drive can block spin down. Close all unnecessary programs to isolate the issue.
- Disable Superfetch and Prefetch – These Windows services can also periodically wake the hard drive. Disabling them may allow spin down.
- Check for viruses – Malware infections can cause abnormal hard drive activity. Scan for viruses and malware.
- Update firmware – Check with your hard drive manufacturer for a firmware update. Firmware bugs can sometimes affect spin down.
- Replace drive – If all else fails, the hard drive itself may be faulty. Replacing it can resolve persistent spin down issues.
Proper spin down is important for drive lifespan and performance. If problems persist, it’s best to investigate the cause and find solutions to keep your drive spinning down normally.
Extending Hard Drive Life
There are several tips to minimize unnecessary spin ups and spins downs in order to extend the life of your hard drive:
First, avoid frequently accessing files stored on the hard drive. The more you access a file, the more the drive has to spin up to load it. Try to organize your files so those accessed most often are on your solid state drive rather than your hard disk drive.
Second, adjust your operating system’s power settings to minimize unnecessary spin ups/downs. In Windows, you can go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options and set a longer time period before the hard drive spins down. Just be aware that this may use more energy.
Another tip is to disable any disk defragmentation or scanning utilities that may regularly spin up the drive. You can also uninstall or disable any apps that might frequently access the hard drive.
Finally, maintain a moderate operating temperature for your hard drive. Too much heat can damage components and reduce lifespan. Ensure your case or laptop has adequate ventilation and airflow around the hard drive.
Properly caring for your hard drive by minimizing spin ups/downs, avoiding excessive heat, and setting optimal power settings can help extend its operating life significantly.
Sources:
https://www.securedatarecovery.com/blog/maximize-life-of-hard-drive
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/maximizing-your-ssd-lifespan-how-ensure-long-term-reliability