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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
External HDD Eject = OK, but Unplug after = Kernel Panic?
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<blockquote data-quote="MacInWin" data-source="post: 1649317"><p>Ian, there is no "gently" in start/stop for an electrical motor. If the drive is "asleep" the drive is not spinning, the circuitry that monitors the spinning is not powered, the only thing drawing power is the circuitry that responds to the demand from the interface for data. When you call for data, the drive applies power to the motor to start the drive spinning and to the heads to start them moving to read the drive (that's another motor, in a different form). In that process there is an inrush of current to the various components that are involved in that process. Most electronics failures occur at that inrush. Now, if you don't power up/down every day, but only once a week, you expose your devices to that inrush a lot less frequently than someone who uses them daily. I cannot and will not make any specific recommendations to you on how to manage your device, it is really up to you, but you need to know that the most likely time of failure is when that motor is going from stopped to spinning. For me, I backup every day, so I just leave the backup drives attached and spinning.</p><p></p><p>BTW, the display has the same inrush problem, but in that case the risk of inrush is balanced by the fact that the backlight has a lifetime measured in hours lit up, typically, which means that it's generally better to let the display sleep. In addition, the display is the single biggest draw of power in the computer, so you save the maximum energy with it blacked out. But the power on/off or backlight on/off is still the most likely time of failure.</p><p></p><p>The same logic applies to light bulbs and every electrical appliance. It's just a fact of life that the time an electric device is most stressed is at power on/off.</p><p></p><p>Here is a Wikipedia article on inrush current: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inrush_current" target="_blank">Inrush</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MacInWin, post: 1649317"] Ian, there is no "gently" in start/stop for an electrical motor. If the drive is "asleep" the drive is not spinning, the circuitry that monitors the spinning is not powered, the only thing drawing power is the circuitry that responds to the demand from the interface for data. When you call for data, the drive applies power to the motor to start the drive spinning and to the heads to start them moving to read the drive (that's another motor, in a different form). In that process there is an inrush of current to the various components that are involved in that process. Most electronics failures occur at that inrush. Now, if you don't power up/down every day, but only once a week, you expose your devices to that inrush a lot less frequently than someone who uses them daily. I cannot and will not make any specific recommendations to you on how to manage your device, it is really up to you, but you need to know that the most likely time of failure is when that motor is going from stopped to spinning. For me, I backup every day, so I just leave the backup drives attached and spinning. BTW, the display has the same inrush problem, but in that case the risk of inrush is balanced by the fact that the backlight has a lifetime measured in hours lit up, typically, which means that it's generally better to let the display sleep. In addition, the display is the single biggest draw of power in the computer, so you save the maximum energy with it blacked out. But the power on/off or backlight on/off is still the most likely time of failure. The same logic applies to light bulbs and every electrical appliance. It's just a fact of life that the time an electric device is most stressed is at power on/off. Here is a Wikipedia article on inrush current: [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inrush_current"]Inrush[/URL] [/QUOTE]
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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
External HDD Eject = OK, but Unplug after = Kernel Panic?
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