• 
  • Recovery Services
  • Devices
  • Operating Systems
• 
  • Diagnosing Problems
  • Common Symptoms
    • Categorizing Issues
    • File System Corruption
    • Deleted Files
    • Overwritten Files
    • Formatted Hard Drive
    • Reinstalled OS
    • Enclosures
    • Electronics
    • Firmware
    • Motor
    • Bearings
    • Heads
    • Platters
  • Preventing Failures
• 
  • Lectures & Coursework
  • Research Partners
  • Internships
• 
  • Quick Tips
    • "Not So Fast..."
  • Press Releases
    • "Website Release"
• 
• 

Quick Tip: "Not So Fast..."
Wait until your laptop has fallen asleep before you move it.

Maybe you've seen it, maybe you've done it, but honestly, most of us are guilty. We're in a rush so we shut the lid on our laptop, pack it up and we're on the road. But something that seems so innocuous may be leading us to data loss.

Everybody knows that when you shut the lid on your laptop it falls asleep. But what is less apparent is that, like you and I, it may "count sheep" for a little bit before starting its slumber. To understand, let's think a little bit about what happens when our laptop sleeps.

We've been working on that term paper or browsing the Internet. Our laptop is dutifully serving our every need. Maybe it's saving a file, then thinking about what's next. Now we shut the lid and ask it to sleep. But it was just wide awake working away.

To make sure it's ready to startup exactly where we left off, it has to store in a safe place all of its memory and information about what it was doing. It does this by cleaning itself up and writing a file to the hard drive. With today's laptops having a copious amount of memory, understandably this file may be rather large.

As such, it may take our laptop some time to get everything cleaned up and written before it can fall asleep. In some cases, 30 seconds or more after you shut the lid. During this time, your laptop is still working, and more importantly to us, its hard drive is still spinning while reading and writing data.

The hard drive contains very precise, and sometimes delicate, components hovering above platters that are spinning at thousands of RPMs. Sometimes all it takes is a little bump, or a quick movement, for those components to touch the platters and cause damage. This can all lead to data loss.

So before you toss your laptop into that bag, give it some time to fall asleep. With most laptops (check your user's manual), watch the power light. When you see it go dark, you're in the clear. Your laptop is sound asleep and ready to accompany you to your next stop.