Always keep ibook on?

A friend of mine went to the apple store and was advised to keep her laptop always on never turn it off
eric frith wrote on :
A friend of mine went to the apple store and was advised to keep her laptop always on never turn it off: opinions
nospam replied on :

In article C4BE0550.7DC%gromit905@redacted.invalid, eric frith gromit905@redacted.invalid wrote:

A friend of mine went to the apple store and was advised to keep her laptop always on never turn it off: opinions

it's a good idea to sleep the ibook instead of shutting down, but it's not a good idea to leave it running non-stop, especially since the laptop drives in ibooks are not rated for 24/7 operation.

Dave Balderstone replied on :

In article C4BE0550.7DC%gromit905@redacted.invalid, eric frith gromit905@redacted.invalid wrote:

A friend of mine went to the apple store and was advised to keep her laptop always on never turn it off: opinions

Set the drive to sleep after x minutes. Set the display to sleep after y minutes.

If you wish, set the laptop to sleep after z minutes, but there's no real advantage.

Jolly Roger replied on :

In article C4BE0550.7DC%gromit905@redacted.invalid, eric frith gromit905@redacted.invalid wrote:

A friend of mine went to the apple store and was advised to keep her laptop always on never turn it off: opinions

More info please.

Gregory Weston replied on :

In article C4BE0550.7DC%gromit905@redacted.invalid, eric frith gromit905@redacted.invalid wrote:

A friend of mine went to the apple store and was advised to keep her laptop always on never turn it off: opinions

Never say never.

It really depends on her usage style. My notebook and my desktop only get turned off if I have a belief that they will not be used again within a day. And, in fact, my notebook spent this past weekend off.

Bob Harris replied on :

In article <050820081551072902%dave@redacted.invalid_O_T_T_H_I_Sbalderstone.ca>, Dave Balderstone <dave@redacted.invalid_O_T_T_H_I_Sbalderstone.ca> wrote:

In article C4BE0550.7DC%gromit905@redacted.invalid, eric frith gromit905@redacted.invalid wrote:

A friend of mine went to the apple store and was advised to keep her laptop always on never turn it off: opinions

Set the drive to sleep after x minutes. Set the display to sleep after y minutes.

If you wish, set the laptop to sleep after z minutes, but there's no real advantage.

That works if you have not loaded your system with all kinds of extras and keep a lot of apps running that like to do things that keep activating the disk. My disk would keep spinning up, or just never go idle.

I had a 14" iBook G4 that I kept power up 24/7, and it only slept when I drove to and from work. I eventually lost the disk drive.
I did not attempt to replace the drive myself, as there are 70+ tiny screws that need to be removed on an iBook to access the drive :-)

A similar thing happened to my wife's 12" iBook G4. I at least had a backup, my wife didn't (but she does now :-) ).

I would suggest putting the iBook (or any laptop) to sleep if it is not needed. However, if from time to time, you find some long running operation is not finished (downloading a new version of XCode, doing a full backup, etc...), then leave the iBook on.
Just let that poor disk rest if you don't need it.

If you are going to keep the system running 24/7, then BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!

                                    Bob Harris
Mike Griggs replied on :

In article 050820081407145768%nospam@redacted.invalid, nospam nospam@redacted.invalid wrote:

it's a good idea to sleep the ibook instead of shutting down, but it's not a good idea to leave it running non-stop, especially since the laptop drives in ibooks are not rated for 24/7 operation.

Also be aware that the laptops (macbooks & pro) do not park the drive completely in sleep mode so if you are going to jostle it in transport--better to shutdown!

cheers Mike

Gregory Weston replied on :

In article mhg3-B3D6C7.10413206082008@redacted.invalid, Mike Griggs mhg3@redacted.invalid wrote:

In article 050820081407145768%nospam@redacted.invalid, nospam nospam@redacted.invalid wrote:

it's a good idea to sleep the ibook instead of shutting down, but it's not a good idea to leave it running non-stop, especially since the laptop drives in ibooks are not rated for 24/7 operation.

Also be aware that the laptops (macbooks & pro) do not park the drive completely in sleep mode ...

Citation?

Or even a verifiable anecdote?

Based on the people I know and talk to, and see writing in to Macintouch and the like, sleeping laptops for travel is the norm and drive failure rates don't seem to be as high as your warning would imply.

Dave Balderstone replied on :

In article uce-24A30B.12381006082008@redacted.invalid, Gregory Weston uce@redacted.invalid wrote:

In article mhg3-B3D6C7.10413206082008@redacted.invalid, Mike Griggs mhg3@redacted.invalid wrote:

In article 050820081407145768%nospam@redacted.invalid, nospam nospam@redacted.invalid wrote:

it's a good idea to sleep the ibook instead of shutting down, but it's not a good idea to leave it running non-stop, especially since the laptop drives in ibooks are not rated for 24/7 operation.

Also be aware that the laptops (macbooks & pro) do not park the drive completely in sleep mode ...

Citation?

Or even a verifiable anecdote?

Based on the people I know and talk to, and see writing in to Macintouch and the like, sleeping laptops for travel is the norm and drive failure rates don't seem to be as high as your warning would imply.

Anecdote: I transport my MacBook Pro twice a day while it's asleep, including in a pannier bag on the back of my bicycle during cycling season. I have never had a drive failure.

nospam replied on :

In article uce-24A30B.12381006082008@redacted.invalid, Gregory Weston uce@redacted.invalid wrote:

it's a good idea to sleep the ibook instead of shutting down, but it's not a good idea to leave it running non-stop, especially since the laptop drives in ibooks are not rated for 24/7 operation.

Also be aware that the laptops (macbooks & pro) do not park the drive completely in sleep mode ...

Citation?

Or even a verifiable anecdote?

Based on the people I know and talk to, and see writing in to Macintouch and the like, sleeping laptops for travel is the norm and drive failure rates don't seem to be as high as your warning would imply.

not only does it park the heads in sleep, but it will park the heads when the motion sensor detects sufficient g forces.