Always keep ibook on?

1. eric frith - 5 August 2008

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

2. nospam - 5 August 2008

   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.

3. Dave Balderstone - 5 August 2008

   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.

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4. Jolly Roger - 5 August 2008

   More info please.

   Send responses to the relevant news group rather than to me, as E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts.

   JR

5. Gregory Weston - 5 August 2008

   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.

   "Harry?" Ron's voice was a mere whisper. "Do you smell something ... burning?" - Harry Potter and the Odor of the Phoenix

6. Bob Harris - 5 August 2008

   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

7. Mike Griggs - 6 August 2008

   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

8. Gregory Weston - 6 August 2008

   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.

   "Harry?" Ron's voice was a mere whisper. "Do you smell something ... burning?" - Harry Potter and the Odor of the Phoenix

9. Dave Balderstone - 6 August 2008

   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.

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10. nospam - 6 August 2008

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