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How to Turn Off Your Hard Disk After Idling in Windows 10
There are many reasons you might want to turn off your hard disk after your Windows computer has been idle for a while. When your computer is running and your hard drive is spinning, heat is generated within the disk drive, which can reduce its lifespan.
Turning off your hard disk after your PC has been idle for a while can also save energy. If you use a laptop, doing this will improve your computer’s battery life too. Here’s a simple way to change how long your PC will wait before spinning down your hard drive.
How to Turn Off Your Hard Disk in Windows 10 After It Has Been Idle
Changing how long your Windows machine waits before switching off the hard drives isn’t complicated. Here’s how to set it up:
- Click on the Start menu and select Settings.
- You have to get into the settings for power management, so click on System.
- Then select Power & sleep from the left pane.
- Look for Related settings—it may be located either to the right or the bottom on the right pane—and click on Additional power settings.
- You should be on the screen to choose or customize your power plan. Look for the selected plan and click on Change plan settings.
- Click on Change advanced power settings. A new window will pop up.
- Look for the Turn off hard disk after setting. Here you can change how long before your computer will spin down your hard drive when it is idle.
If you want to go back to the way things were, you can easily reset the Windows power plan back to its default.
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How Long Should You Wait to Spin Down a Hard Disk?
There are upsides to turning off your hard drive after your PC has been idle, but the downside is that it will take longer to restart File Explorer in Windows as you wait for your disks to spin up again. It’s about finding the right balance.
Depending on how you use your computer—whether you step away from it for extended periods several times during the day, or whether you work on it all day and leave it to idle overnight—you should pick how long before your Windows PC spins down your hard disk.
Spinning your hard disk up and down several times a day can reduce the life of your drive. So if you tend to use your PC in bursts during the day, it’s probably best to set a longer time here.
However, if your PC runs for most of the day, only sleeping and idling at night, then it might be a good idea to set this value low. That way, your PC will quickly spin down your hard drive when you are done using it, extending the life of your hard drive.
We have a handy guide to Windows 10 power options, explaining what Windows power plans mean and delving into advanced settings.
Save Your Hard Disk Drive and Laptop’s Battery
You can change how long your PC will wait when it is idle before it spins down its hard drives, depending on how you use your computer. This can save energy and extend your battery life as well as your hard disk’s lifespan.
