Sleep mode and turning off hard disks

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10 Dec 2007
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Got a laptop last week and still deciding what to do with it.

1. Sleep or not?

I use my laptop a lot but I'm away from it for say 5-10 minutes frequently. Do I just shut the screen off (laptop has Fn + F7 key for this) or do I set it to Sleep?

2. Storage drive - turn it off or leave on?

The laptop also has a storage drive (OS on SSD) and I've set the power plan to never turn off the hard disks after inactivity has occured.

My idea here is that accessing the storage drive 4/5 times a day (e.g. when I use it) will wear it out more than if I just keep it active the whole time, right? I know I'm probably wasting more power but not a lot for a HD that might save it in the long run.

Also, say I do have Sleep on my laptop, what happens to the storage drive? Does that power down which makes setting it to never spin down worthless?

Thanks

(Asked this in laptop forum but here is probably better actually)
 
Not really the SSD I'm worried about, it's the spin down and spin up cycle of the mechanical storage drive I'm worried about.
 
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