| ▲ | ssl-3 7 hours ago | |
Is there any evidence that suggests that reading from a hard drive (instead of it just spinning idle) increases physical wear in any meaningful way? Likewise, is there any evidence of this for solid-state storage? | ||
| ▲ | rcxdude 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] | |
Yes. Hard drives have published "Annualized Workload Rate" ratings, which are in TB/year, and the manufacturers state there is no difference between reads and writes for the purpose of this rating. (https://www.toshiba-storage.com/trends-technology/mttf-what-...) For SSDs, writes matter a lot more. Reads may increase the temperature of the drive, so they'll have some effect, but I don't think I've seen a read endurance rating for an SSD. | ||
| ▲ | digiown an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | |
Reading from it requires the read head to move, as opposed to spinning idle where the heads are parked on the side. Moving parts generally wear out over time. | ||