[G4] Disk drives

[Ernest Vincent Pons-Worley]

I'm thinking that this used to be true in the pre-gigabyte days when 
the heads actually rested on the disk.  Once the disk spun to speed the 
heads would fly over the surface, but while the disk was spinning up or 
spinning down they would drag on the surface (which was lubricated to 
reduce wear).  The number of start/stop cycles figures into the disk 
drive MTBF equation.  However, now that drives use dynamic head loading 
(heads loaded after disk is spinning) there is no longer head to disk 
contact and start/stops are less of a concern than they once were.  I'm 
only talking about the mechanics, not the electronics of the drive.

> Let's just say that the act of spinning up a harddrive is more 
> stressful
> (to the drive) than days worth of running. (Yes, that applies to "put
> drive to sleep when idle" too. It may save you energy, but not 
> necessarily
> money. :-)
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