Necessary to power down MBP?

[GeoffWillis]

I have question about transporting my MBP. I have been just closing the lid and taking it on the road with me without powering down the computer. I assumed that the hard drive heads would auto park when the system hibernates. Is that true? Or, do I need to power the system all the way down before I transport it? I really like the instant on feature when hibernating, but don’t want to damage my new toy. Thanks all,
Geoff

 

[iVikD]

I have question about transporting my MBP. I have been just closing the lid and taking it on the road with me without powering down the computer. I assumed that the hard drive heads would auto park when the system hibernates. Is that true? Or, do I need to power the system all the way down before I transport it? I really like the instant on feature when hibernating, but don’t want to damage my new toy. Thanks all,
Geoff

It actually goes into sleep first, then hibernates a while after, but the drives still spin down, so no worries. As soon nas you close the lid, the sleep light turns on while it saves all the data it needs, and as soon as it starts 'blinking' softly, it's all done and the drives are off.
So yeah, don't worry about carrying it around, either way, it has motion sensors that protect the HDD in case of sudden movement while the drive is spinning.

 

[GeoffWillis]

Thanks!

I thought so, but last week when I went to my One-on-One session at the Apple Store, they told me I should have powered my system down before transporting it to the store... Seemed odd to me, so thanks for clarifying that. At least she helped me with AirDrop between my MBP and MacMini.

Geoff

 

[Krazy Bill]

I thought so, but last week when I went to my One-on-One session at the Apple Store, they told me I should have powered my system down before transporting it to the store...

Apple employees obviously never shut down their machines or else they'd have realized this takes a day-and-a-half to do so under Mountain Lion.

 

[glenthompson]

I almost never shut mine down. I just close it and put it in my backpack. Never been a problem.

 

[Ryan1524]

I never power down. Any shutdown is normally performed when required by update/install. It's going on its 6th year now.

 

[xShane]

I have question about transporting my MBP. I have been just closing the lid and taking it on the road with me without powering down the computer. I assumed that the hard drive heads would auto park when the system hibernates. Is that true? Or, do I need to power the system all the way down before I transport it? I really like the instant on feature when hibernating, but don’t want to damage my new toy. Thanks all,
Geoff

I always shut down my machine when transporting. It's a quick and simple process.

Also, there's always that rare chance it will wake up from sleep and massively overheat, as I've seen on these forums before.

 

[Asuriyan]

Wake-up events are never random, and without continued input the computer would just go back to sleep after the alloted time had passed.

Most of those stories are due to people leaving USB mice on and plugged in, or something similar.

 

[alphaod]

With FireVault 2… now I shutdown whenever I know I won't be using my computer for a couple hours. Boot up only takes like 15 seconds.

 

[Ryan1524]

And in Sleep mode, nearly all components are off, same as Shutdown. Except you get back to work in less than 1sec, not 14.

Why pay for the feature and not use it?

 

[Doward]

IF you're worried about the mechanical drive heads parking, I'd recommend getting yourself an SSD to install inside your MBP.

That's exactly what I did - I use a Buffalo Thunderbolt drive as my main 'storage'. I just eject it, close the lid, disconnect the drive and away I go.

 

[snaky69]

I thought so, but last week when I went to my One-on-One session at the Apple Store, they told me I should have powered my system down before transporting it to the store... Seemed odd to me, so thanks for clarifying that. At least she helped me with AirDrop between my MBP and MacMini.

Geoff

"Genius" is a job title, not an adjective in those cases. The person you talked to hadn't a clue what he/she was talking about.

Always take what is essentially a glorified computer salesman's word with a grain of salt.

 

[Krazy Bill]

"Genius" is a job title, not an adjective in those cases. The person you talked to hadn't a clue what he/she was talking about.

Always take what is essentially a glorified computer salesman's word with a grain of salt.

I also have a general rule about this which is: "Make sure the Genius is older than the socks your are wearing."

 

[kensic]

just use common sense and what ever you feel comfortable.

for me...if imma transport it for 10 mins to my friend's house, ill just close the lid.

but if imma transport to San diego *2hours away*. ill shut it off.

 

[Krazy Bill]

just use common sense and what ever you feel comfortable.

for me...if imma transport it for 10 mins to my friend's house, ill just close the lid.

but if imma transport to San diego *2hours away*. ill shut it off.

imma dont havva clue whatta you justta said.