Do I ever want to use sleep/shutoff harddisks?

[Denvers Dawgs]

Do I want to have my computer to sleep after a certian # of hours, or would I want to have harddisks shut off ever? Or should just let computer to run 24/7?

What does shutting down harddisks do? Pros/Cons?

[rallynavvie]

Shutting down the hard drives is OK if you're trying to reduce heat, noise, and power consumption. It may be hard on the device itself if it has to spin up a lot more often than if you just leave them running all day.

I would do it if I shared a bedroom with a computer just to cut out some noise, but at that point I think I'd just be shutting the whole system down.

[gmatov]

Sometimes they are a bitch to awaken. One machine, all I gotta do is nudge the mouse, awake.

Another machine, I play with the mouse, actually, touch screen a dozen times before it wakes up. Click keys, etc.

Then I go into settings and select "Never" for HDD and Monitor.

Rather they don't lock up, or seem to be locked up.

Cheers,

George