Hibernation vs. Standby

2 Dec 2008 2:34 AM

OREALLY

Regarding hibernation: I seem to have exhausted all explanations and
solutions. Hibernation is a dicey operation, at best. Microsoft even put out
an update to try and correct it. I can't understand why they insist it is a
viable option given its problems on desktops. Meanwhile, Standby seems to
work, so far. My question is: What is the effect on hard drive life....
using either standby or hibernation?

Oreally

2 Dec 2008 3:02 AM

Shenan Stanley

OREALLY wrote:

> Regarding hibernation: I seem to have exhausted all explanations and
> solutions. Hibernation is a dicey operation, at best. Microsoft
> even put out an update to try and correct it. I can't understand
> why they insist it is a viable option given its problems on
> desktops. Meanwhile, Standby seems to work, so far. My question is:
> What is the effect on hard drive life.... using either standby or
> hibernation?

Likely net-zero.

What I mean is your hard drive should not be harmed by normal operations
(read/write/seek/head-park/etc) - standby/hibernation is nothing abnormal to
a hard disk drive. The life of the hard drive - unless it is flawed - is
practically unchanged.

If you have a good hard drive with minimal flaws and don't use it for
drop-testing - you will lose interest in it before it loses interest in your
data.

(That is not to say that you should not backup. Not doing that simple task
is unwise at best.)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

2 Dec 2008 3:13 AM

Leonard Grey

Hibernation and Standby were created for laptops, which are frequently
operated on battery power. Desktops use different hardware (and
different BIOSes) so you should not necessarily expect Hibernation and
Standby to work flawlessly all the time on a desktop.

Which is not to say that H & S won't work on a desktop...it's more like,
if it works, great, and if it doesn't, oh well.
---
Leonard Grey
Packin' the 'K'

OREALLY wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

> Regarding hibernation: I seem to have exhausted all explanations and
> solutions. Hibernation is a dicey operation, at best. Microsoft even put
> out an update to try and correct it. I can't understand why they insist
> it is a viable option given its problems on desktops. Meanwhile, Standby
> seems to work, so far. My question is: What is the effect on hard drive
> life.... using either standby or hibernation?
>
> Oreally
>
>

2 Dec 2008 4:56 PM

Twayne

> Hibernation and Standby were created for laptops, which are frequently
> operated on battery power. Desktops use different hardware (and
> different BIOSes) so you should not necessarily expect Hibernation and
> Standby to work flawlessly all the time on a desktop.
>
> Which is not to say that H & S won't work on a desktop...it's more
> like, if it works, great, and if it doesn't, oh well.

They've always worked well on both my lap and desk top machines. I let
them go into Standby if I've left for a short amount of time. If that
short time turns into a long time, then it hibernates.

There is some sort of a "use it or lose it" thing I've never quite
figured out, but - since I started using them consistantly on both
machines, the problems are gone. But it's true of either laptop OR
desktop, so it's something common to the OS internals, whatever it is.
No idea whether SP3 made any difference but nothing else changed about
it in any way.

Twayne

Show quoteHide quote

> --- <----------------- Improper sig delimiter; can't work.
> Leonard Grey
> Packin' the 'K'
>
> OREALLY wrote:
>> Regarding hibernation: I seem to have exhausted all explanations and
>> solutions. Hibernation is a dicey operation, at best. Microsoft even
>> put out an update to try and correct it. I can't understand why they
>> insist it is a viable option given its problems on desktops.
>> Meanwhile, Standby seems to work, so far. My question is: What is
>> the effect on hard drive life.... using either standby or
>> hibernation? Oreally

14 Dec 2008 3:57 PM

inavlis

Hi Oreally,

there is no real effect on hard drive life. You could save some electricity
usage by using hibernation though.

But, since hibernation is storing the data into the hard drive, you could
expect more fragmentation on your hard drive.

Show quoteHide quote

"OREALLY" wrote:

> Regarding hibernation: I seem to have exhausted all explanations and
> solutions. Hibernation is a dicey operation, at best. Microsoft even put out
> an update to try and correct it. I can't understand why they insist it is a
> viable option given its problems on desktops. Meanwhile, Standby seems to
> work, so far. My question is: What is the effect on hard drive life....
> using either standby or hibernation?
>
> Oreally
>
>
>