Does hard disk spin when PC sleeps

hard drivesleep

When I put a Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 PC on sleep mode, does the spinning of hard disk turn off or is kept on? I am talking about the internals of the hard disk and general sleep mode not hibernate.

Best Answer

For both S3 (Sleep, or Standby) and S4 (hibernate) sleep modes, the hard disk is turned off, along with anything else that isn't needed.

For S3 sleep mode, this can be every subsystem aside from RAM. There is sufficient information in RAM to restore the computer to its awake state.

For S4 sleep mode, this can be every subsystem, including RAM, as this is written to disk - the PC is then powered off.

In reality, some parts of the system are left active in a lower power state, such as network cards and input devices, as these are sometimes used to bring the PC back from sleep.

However, the hard disk is not one of the systems that are left running.

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