Hibernation

[Josquius]

Is hibernation bad for your computer?

In recent years I've really got in the habit of using hibernation a lot. Not having to wait all day for my computer to start up when I want to use it is awesome, as is having everything as I left it. Power usage I believe is also totally minimal- if you want to be a bean counter it might even be better to use this tiny amount of power to keep it running than use a larger amount for startup.

However....a friend of mine insists hibernating is not good for a computer. He says the hd keeps running (I've never noticed that...) and it can wear out the psu too.
Googling about I read conflicting reports, some say hibernation is fine, others say it is dodgy on desktops.

Anyone?

[DontSayBanana]

Is hibernation bad for your computer?

In recent years I've really got in the habit of using hibernation a lot. Not having to wait all day for my computer to start up when I want to use it is awesome, as is having everything as I left it. Power usage I believe is also totally minimal- if you want to be a bean counter it might even be better to use this tiny amount of power to keep it running than use a larger amount for startup.

However....a friend of mine insists hibernating is not good for a computer. He says the hd keeps running (I've never noticed that...) and it can wear out the psu too.
Googling about I read conflicting reports, some say hibernation is fine, others say it is dodgy on desktops.

Anyone?

Your friend doesn't know what he's talking about.  Hibernation writes the contents of RAM to the hard disk and powers everything down.  If there's any problem with hibernation, it's an increased likelihood of disk thrashing, since so much extra data is being written and pulled from the hard drive.

This breaks down the ACPI power states:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Configuration_and_Power_Interface#Power_states

[Grey Fox]

To his friends credit, Hibernation use to totally suck.

Some desktop have more trouble with it then others. I don't know why.