> > Hi John > > I have *not* said anything like that. > > IDE drives of any brand are not meant to be used 24 hours a day. (just > spinning or reading/writing) please do a internet research for yourself and > look at the specifications and mean time between failure (MFTB). > *Recommended* running time for IDE drives is about 3 weeks in a month or > 75%.
And I repeat: So why do IBM offer IDE RAID arrays on their xServer systems? Those are systems which are meant to be left running continually. IDE drives (and all disk drives) fail *more* often if spun down than if left continually spinning. That's been known for years. As long as you have adequate cooling in the enclosure, the best thing to do is leave the disk spinning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Spinning down drives (to save power) has a huge MTBF cost. Desktop systems spin down the disks because a quiet environment is more important than long life - sitting next to a noisy fan is one of the most frequently-voiced complaints - and because there are standards for energy-efficiency that have to be met.
