For HDD which is better?

[Veltrix]

Question:

For the windows power saving features would it be beneficial to have the HDD turn off after a set amount of time or have them running on all the time? My logic is the amount of start stop may affect its life too. I regularly access the hard drive so would it be just better to have it on instead of power or go to sleep state after a set time?

 

Background Info:

Any help would be appreciated because my 4 year old Seagate HDD which has logged 1.65 years or 606 days of power on time is getting more bad sectors and its beginning to rapidly occur. I will buy a larger hard drive soon to back up all my data, plus I am no goood at NAS or back up server thing let alone I have the money. Oh yeah the hard drive is 1TB the exact model number is ST31000528AS its up to its 8th bad sector and that was a shorter amount of time period when it went from 6 -> 7 that was about a year worth and now its been less than 4 months. :L

 

[Hotnuggets]

I think if you are accessing it regularly, just keep it running all the time.