Reduce HDD Writes?

[Timster]

Hi

I know that this suggestion bears an element of risk for the user's data, however would it be possible for an option or two (user selectable) to minimise HDD use by writing all files only every x minutes.
This would reduce HDD use, and wear, reduce power consumption.  User accepts that if the power is lost before a write, all data for that time period is likely lost.
I'd be happy to accept that risk, for say a 60 minute write cycle, allowing my HDD to spin down for most of a day.

Can WD operate in this fashion or is it a major code change to facilitate reading data from temporary RAM based storage?

Cheers
Tim

[Weather Display]

see in the setup, advanced/misc setup, tick, only save the data files every 10 minutes...that will help a bit

I have never had a problem with a HD myself due to lots of writes

what makes HD fail is them getting to hot (not enough ventilation in the PC)

[BigOkie]

see in the setup, advanced/misc setup, tick, only save the data files every 10 minutes...that will help a bit

I have never had a problem with a HD myself due to lots of writes

what makes HD fail is them getting to hot (not enough ventilation in the PC)

Quite possibly smashing one with a 10 lb sledgehammer *might* make one fail also.

 

Sorry Brian, I could not resist.  I've done this before (actually a test to see how much abuse I could put one through before it would stop reading).

[niko]

Also consider the OS, XP appears to wear test the disk all by itself    You could use a ramdisk, not sure if they are still around but there used to be good ramdisk utilities that handled the startup and shutdown load/unload process. If you want to reduce power consumption there are some low power disks available, and/or you could use a 2.5" disk. I used to question 2.5" reliability in continuous use but I've had one running 24x7 for almost 2 years now in a webcam server without any problems so I think I was wrong.

[Timster]

see in the setup, advanced/misc setup, tick, only save the data files every 10 minutes...that will help a bit

Thanks Brian, does this also stop the log files being written?  It seems that my HDD light is on every few seconds.... and there is no other software on the PC except the O/S (Win 7) and WD

Maybe Win7 is doing some of the writing too.

Thanks to all for the feedback from other about disk longevity too.  I think I'll pass on the sledgehammer test however!

Cheers
Tim

[Weather Display]

do you have WD updating the clientraw files?

[niko]

You can use Procmon to see what files are being accessed. It does produce an avalanche of data so it's necessary to be very selective about what you ask it to track.

[Timster]

do you have WD updating the clientraw files?

Hi Brian,

Will check this hopefully tonight and let you know, but I think yes, as I am using WDL as well. I guess that would do it.

Cheers
Tim

[Timster]

You can use Procmon to see what files are being accessed.

Thanks for this.  I'll check it out as well!

Cheers
Tim