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    Hard Drive Acoustic Management

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by Henry Su, Aug 11, 2005.

  1. Henry Su

    Henry Su Notebook Consultant

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    Does anyone know what exactly is hard drive acoustic management? I tried setting it to "quiet" with Centrino Hardware Control. Besides it obviously being quieter, what are the advantages/disadvantages of this? Also, is spinning down the hard drive bad for it?
     
    Henry Su, Aug 11, 2005
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  2. Venombite

    Venombite Notebook Virtuoso

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    Acoustic Management is a way to decrease the noise a hard drive creates during read/write operations. Generally, it slows down the read/write head movement and therefore decreases overall performance. I wouldn't recommend using this feature unless your drive is really loud.

    Spinngin down the drive is just a way to save power when the drive is not in use. If your system were to sit idle for x number of minutes, the HDD will turn itself off to save battery power or power in general. I personally don't use this feature when on AC (I set it so the HDD never turns off) and there's no issues with my drives. But when on battery, I do set it to turn off the drives after 15mins of inactivity. It'll give me an extra few minutes of power, why not?

    -Vb-
     
    Venombite, Aug 11, 2005
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  3. Henry Su

    Henry Su Notebook Consultant

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    Ah so spinning down is basically like turning off the hard disk, right? Also, does the acoustic management thing affect the rpm?
     
    Henry Su, Aug 11, 2005
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  4. qwester

    qwester Notebook Virtuoso

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    NO, accoustic management doesn't affect RPM. Your drive will always spin at whatever speed it was designed to do. As venombite was saying it affects read/write speed. In fact it has to do more with seeking (which in the end affects read/write speed)
     
    qwester, Aug 11, 2005
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