Does shutting down and starting up wear out the hard drive faster?

Question

does anyone know if shutting down and starting up the imac repeatedly wear out the hard drive faster? I had heard that repeated shutting down and starting up of the hard drive will wear out the hard drive faster. If this is true, is it better to put the imac to sleep and shut down only when you absolutely have to or when you will be gone for a while? (e.g., going on vacation or when moving the imac). The imac manual suggests that if you are going to use the imac within a few days to put it to sleep and shut it down if you are not going to use it for a few days. Is this advice just to save you time since you don't have to reboot or will this help prolong the life of the hard drive? Of course, keeping the imac on all the time might waste energy (not sure if sleep mode saves energy). But since I use the imac practically everyday it may make sense to put it to sleep, especially if this will prolong the life of the hard drive. thanks

Answer 1

Good Morning,
In my experience there shouldn't be any unnecessary wear and tear on your hard drive from shutting down your computer unless you are doing an EXTREME amount of startup/shutdown cycles.
The average user should not put enough strain on the drive to even be noticed from normal startup/shutdown cycles.
Hope this helps! 
David