Vista - Shut down, Sleep, Hibernate: Which is Recommended?

My Vista 32bit is used at home for a few hours daily. A comment in another
group stated shutting down / starting back up is harder on the system over
the years. True?
Is there any difference between the button left of the lock symbol ('Saves
session & puts comp. in low power state' and sleep? When I'm done for the
day which is recommended by those who know? Thanx

I never use hibernate anymore, I now use standby all the time. The startup
time with it is excellent. You can also shut it down too. It's totally up
to you. I would agree with the on and off all day is not good. Putting it
into standby overnight is not going to cause any problems. Leaving it on
24/7 will just add time to all your components.

-----Original Message-----
From: hermit [mailto:hermit@xxxxxx]
Posted At: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 10:02 PM
Posted To: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Conversation: Shut down, Sleep, Hibernate: Which is Recommended?
Subject: Shut down, Sleep, Hibernate: Which is Recommended?

My Vista 32bit is used at home for a few hours daily. A comment in
another
group stated shutting down / starting back up is harder on the system over
the years. True?
Is there any difference between the button left of the lock symbol ('Saves
session & puts comp. in low power state' and sleep? When I'm done for
the
day which is recommended by those who know? Thanx

If not shut down, isn't the hard drive running 24/7 ?? >"I would agree with the on and off all day is not good." < misunderstood. Shut down when done for the day?

Shut down or Standby will turn the hard drive off.

-----Original Message-----
From: hermit [mailto:guest@xxxxxx-email.com]
Posted At: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 10:50 PM
Posted To: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Conversation: Shut down, Sleep, Hibernate: Which is Recommended?
Subject: Re: Shut down, Sleep, Hibernate: Which is Recommended?


If not shut down, isn't the hard drive running 24/7 ?? >"I would agree
with the on and off all day is not good." < misunderstood. Shut down
when done for the day?


--
hermit

I think there's some confusion amongst the other contributors here, because
the question was about "sleep" and the answers were about "standby", which
are different things.

Let's just quickly go through them:

"Shut Down" closes down all applications, the OS, and powers off the whole
computer*. When you restart, you go through the BIOS startup, and then boot
the OS to an empty desktop.

"Hibernate" writes the current state of the OS and open applications to a
disk file. This takes several seconds. It then powers off the whole
computer (like Shut Down does). When you restart, the computer goes through
the BIOS startup but then, rather than booting the OS in the normal way the
operating state is reloaded from disk, which again takes several seconds.
You are then presented with your applications open, just as you left them.

"Standby" shuts down most of the computer (hard disks, processor, fans,
screen), but leaves the memory powered up, along with some of the
peripherals. It's rather like "freezing" your computer at a moment in time.
It is quick: it doesn't require the current state to be written to disk.
Resuming from standby is also quick: effectively it just "unfreezes" the
processor and carries on from where it left off. It has one major
disadvantage: if the power is removed whilst the computer is in standby, the
operating state of the OS and applications is lost. This can lead to data
loss.

"Sleep" is a new mode introduced with Vista, and it's a clever combination
of Standby and Hibernate. "Sleep" writes the current state of the OS and
open applications to a disk file - just like Hibernate - which takes several
seconds. But then it effectively puts the computer into standby - that is,
it shuts down most of the hardware but leaves the memory powered up.
Provided the power remains on the computer whilst it is "sleeping", it can
resume almost instantly, because the operating state is preserved in memory
and it just "unfreezes" the processor, like resuming from the old Standby.
If the power should be lost whilst the computer is in Sleep, no data is lost
because the operating state was saved to disk. In this case the computer
goes through the BIOS startup and then reloads the operating state from the
disk file, just like coming out of Hibernate.

"Sleep" is wonderful: it allows an almost instantaneous resumption to your
open applications if the power was not interrupted. If it *was*
interrupted, it still resumes to your open applications, but it takes a
little longer.

To answer your question:

1/ The supposed effects of starting and stopping your hard disk, as opposed
to running it 24/7, are NOT well established, despite what a few opinionated
but ill-informed hot-heads in this newsgroup will tell you. There is no
*conclusive* data to suggest which is better for disk life (you might like
to look at the research Google have done in this field), or the life of the
other electronics.

2/ Powering down your computer will definitely save energy, though.

3/ The best way to power it down by far is the new "Sleep" mode in Vista,
which is the default function of the "power button" icon you can see when
you click the Orb. It allows an instant resume if the power was
uninterrupted whilst the computer was "sleeping", and a pretty quick resume
if the power was removed for some reason. I recommend it.

I hope this has been of some help.

SteveT

*Strictly speaking, even when "fully switched off" using the power button,
parts of the motherboard remain powered. This allows it to respond to the
power button on the front of the case.

With the ongoing fight against global warming, things like keeping your computer on standby ain't helping, it's still using up to 80% of the power it would if it was on, so why not just wait another..40 seconds..and do everyone a favour.

Also try switching the plug off as somebody else just said the motherboard remains powered sometimes.

Steve, thank you for a very useful summary.

How do you respond to "respawns", who said "With the ongoing fight against
global warming, things like keeping your computer on standby ain't helping,
it's still using up to 80% of the power it would if it was on, so why not
just wait another .40 seconds and do everyone a favour."? I accept that
Standby mode (which I do not use, and would not now that I have read your
notes) still incurs some power usage, but I would have thought it was
minimal and nowhere even near 80% of normal usage.

--
Lindsay Graham
Canberra, Australia
---------------------------------------------
Please reply only to the list/newsgroup so that all may benefit.

"Steve Thackery" <nobody@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uDNj$65yIHA.4704@xxxxxx

> How do you respond to "respawns", who said "With the ongoing fight againstIt's an exaggeration, of course. I'll measure mine for you next time I
power it down, but it's nothing like as high as 80%.

Obviously, it's higher than zero, and you'll have to make your own judgement
about whether you want to go the whole hog and actually unplug it from the
wall.

Like I say, I will let you know the power consumption of mine in the various
modes later on this evening (I'll be working on it until then).

Has anyone else got a power meter they could use, so we can compare notes?

SteveT

Steve,

Thank you for your clear comprehensive explanation & debunking what apparently is only witness banter.