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On or Off?
Is it better for my
computer to leave it on or shut it off when I'm not using
it?
To my way of thinking, there are
four main reasons to be concerned about leaving a computer
on all day and night. They are: electricity cost, data security,
damage from power spikes, and thermal/environmental issues.
All of these can be causes of damage to your computer or
files. All of these may require you call us for data recovery.
Electricity
cost: According to the SETI@home program, it costs
less than a dollar a day to actively run a computer for
24 hours. Most computers sold in the past few years have
an energy-saving feature that puts the computer "to sleep"
after a while. My unscientific estimate is that leaving
a modern computer on all day and turning it off at night
probably costs about 35 cents.
Data
Security: If you have a dial-up modem, there's little
to worry about, as long as your modem disconnects after
your session is over. If it doesn't, you can set it to do
that. If you have a cablemodem, DSL (or other broadband),
you should have a firewall. It's better still to get a router
that lets you turn access off and on with a switch. Turning
off the router or turning off the computer makes your data
safe from hackers.
Power
Spike Damage: You'll find that experts disagree on
the subject, but here's my rule of thumb: turn your computer
on when you first use it, and turn it off at the end of
the day. There are some exceptions. If you're only planning
to use it once during the day, then turn it off right after
you use it. It's a good idea to shut down the computer before
using power tools, air conditioning, washer, dryer, laser
beam, or light saber. If you're expecting a brownout or
a thunderstorm (not common occurrences on the Central Coast!),
you should shut down the computer as well. If a power surge
crashes your computer, we can usually recover the data.
There are things that you can try as well.
Get
a UPS: No, not the shipper, but an Uninterruptible
Power Supply. Power spikes can damage your computer, and
worse, your data. A UPS has several outlets for you to plug
your computer's power cord into and the power is supplied
by a battery inside the UPS. The UPS is hooked up to a wall
outlet, so the battery is continually recharged. This keeps
voltage spikes from affecting your computer. It also gives
you a few minutes to shut the computer off. Otherwise a
power loss may do it for you and damage your computer and
its data.
Can't
I just get a surge protector? Surge protectors don't
stop all the power spikes or variations, and they don't
help at all in a brownout or blackout. A UPS can be had
for as little as forty dollars. Get a UPS and practice safe
computing!
Environmental/Thermal
Issues: One of the biggest sources of failure for
disk drives is heat. The inside of your computer is hotter
than the room that it's in. When we are away from the computer,
or from the house or office, we are not likely to be monitoring
the temperature inside. A very popular brand of disk drive
is not supposed to be operating at a temperature over 95
degrees Fahrenheit.
One sure fire way to have the drive
not operating at such temperatures is to have it off when
you are not around. It is likely that many head crashes
result from too-hot conditions. We have recovered hundreds
of disk drives with crashed heads, but they account for
the most difficult and expensive data recoveries. Nonetheless,
the odds are not bad for recovering data from drives with
crashed heads. If this has happened to you, drop
us a line.
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