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    Silly Question - How long does a HDD platter spin after it's powered off?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by HTWingNut, Dec 30, 2008.

  1. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    I was just thinking about this as I was doing some backups with my WD Passport drive. How long does the HDD platter spin after it's powered off? How about desktop drives? Since they spin in a vacuum (right?), on some very low friction bearing, the inertia seems like it would have it spin forever. Could this cause HDD damage if the HDD was moved a little too aggressively too quickly?

    Maybe stupid question, but I'm curious. Maybe I should get a Raptor X and watch it after I power it off. lol. Not THAT curious. :eek:
     
    HTWingNut, Dec 30, 2008
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  2. whizzo

    whizzo Notebook Prophet

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    wouldn't the electric motor act like a dynamo and stop it pretty quickly?
     
    whizzo, Dec 30, 2008
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  3. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    after the system powers down it takes about 2-3 seconds for the drive to completely stop. (laptop drives)
    It takes about 3 seconds for all desktop drives to stop.
    On older enterprise drives and MFM/RLL drives it may take up to 45 seconds for the drive to stop spinning.
    Some of the new 15k drives I own take about 8-10 seconds to stop

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Dec 30, 2008
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  4. miro_gt

    miro_gt Notebook Deity

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    mine takes about 2-3 sec to stop
     
    miro_gt, Dec 30, 2008
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  5. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    The ATA controller parks the heads in the landing zone as soon as the power is cut off. If you usually power off, kinda abruptly, you'll hear a slightly loud click! (which is the parking of the heads). So, even if the platter is revolving for a couple of seconds or micro-seconds after the power-off doesn't really matter, because there will be nothing that would crash into the platter surface if you jerk or move the drive wildly.
     
    Andy, Dec 30, 2008
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  6. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

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    I've got a WD Essentials drive and when you 'safely remove hardware' it in Windows XP, the drive spins down, however, it doesn't appear to do that in Windows Vista. I downloaded the WD Spindown or Stop Utility, which I use... every so often.

    Also, I don't think hard-drives are enclosed in a vacuum (I could well be wrong). There's often an air filter in the casing, and also the do-not-block hole sometimes.

    I also agree with the "The ATA controller parks the heads in the landing zone as soon as the power is cut off.", however some drives hold the head in place magnetically (dangerous if you're actually going to be waving the drive around, as I've found) and some do it with a lock which doesn't move until the drive has spun up/down to a certain speed (had a [ancient] drive that the head couldn't move because the lock got stuck, so I had to break it off to get to my data).
     
    namaiki, Dec 30, 2008
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