Hello everybody.

Is it true that, when you temporarily turn off your computer using the Stand By mode, it turns off all the HDDs?

Standby vs hibernate?

Because then, it seems strange to me that, in Power Schemes (accessible from the Screen Saver tab), for my laptop it is written:

- system standby (after 20 minutes);
- turn off hard disks (after 30 minutes).

How come someone can be as arrogant so as to declare he'll turn off something that's already turned off?

I'm looking for a logical explanation, here.

Thanks,
moboduke

Hello and welcome to PCHelpForum.

Sleep mode/hybernation/standby refers to a low power mode for electronic devices such as computers, televisions, and remote controlled devices. These modes save significant electrical consumption compared to leaving a device fully on and idle but allow the user to avoid having to reset programming codes or wait for a machine to reboot. Many devices signify this power mode by a pulsing led power light.

Hibernate (OS feature) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Power management - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When in sleep mode or hybernation it is just that.

Lets say when a bear hybernates for the winter its still breaths and moves during his sleep for a few weeks.

Same as a computer although it is aslepp/hybernating it is still using power and hardware is still ticking away nicely only in a lower power consumption.Your hard drive is still in use.

Using the settings to turn off hard drive after so many minutes would actualy turn off your hard drive so it was using no power.

Are you saying that when people carry their laptop around (most frequently by having put it in standby mode beforehand) they actually could damage the hard drive if they accidentally knock it over something, because the hard drive head is not secured?

I've always assumed the HDD head was parking itself when the computer was "turned off" via stand by.

Did you people also think that was the case?

When a laptop is in stand by mode it is still using battery power and as I mentioned before ticking away not running at full battery power.

When carrying a laptop a knock or dropping the laptop can kill a hard drive or break other hardware.It dont need to be in standby mode,switched on and in use or turned off.If you drop it of knock it,it could cause damage to the machine.

Any number of things could cause damage to a computer/laptop.

"When a laptop is in stand by mode it is still using battery power and as I mentioned before ticking away not running at full battery power."

1) I do not get that sentence. What do you mean, by "ticking away?"

2) when I click off -> turn off -> stand by, my HDDs will be left on until I manually turn off the laptop, is that right?

3) and the only way my laptop can be in stand by mode with HDDs turned off is to wait until the chosen power scheme gets triggered, that's right?

4) "When carrying a laptop a knock or dropping the laptop can kill a hard drive or break other hardware." -- I mean, from my own knowledge, knocking a HDD over something has a lot more of chances of breaking it if it's running than if it's turned off. Do you agree to this claim?

5) now we get to the underlying purpose of this message: this winter, I'll need to bring my laptop to school. I've bought a nice laptop case/bag, but I'm fearing to break it if it gets too cold, because I'll need to walk from like 20 to 30 minutes in cold weather before entering in. Therefore, I thought myself, "hey, why don't you leave your laptop in stand by mode, so when you walk outside it won't have the time to get cold, thus you won't need to wait for it to warm up to open it once inside the building?"

Thanks,
moboduke

1,When you leave your car engin running/idling we in the UK call it ticking away.Ticking away is a UK term.When your laptop is hyberbating it is idling/ticking away/using minumum power.This also means if you have to rush of some were and were working on a project on your computer/laptop the item would not be lost.

2,When you turn off/shut down a computer/laptop it turns off,power is not getting to your hard drive,hybernation mode your laptop is still running and is getting power but only minimul.

3,You have to set power scheme manualy to turn off the hard drive.That is your choice.

4,No I do NOT agree with that claim.

5,If you leave it in standby mode and place in a bag this will block the vent you could damage or break the laptop.

There does this answer your question wich I belive far reaches from the origonal question asked in your first post.