Adaptive disk spin-down method for managing the power distributed to a disk drive in a laptop computer

A power conservation method for a computer apparatus that contains a spinnahle disk that exhibits intermittent periods of activity separated by periods of inactivity, the method including the steps of:

• spinning the disk up when the computer apparatus is being used;
• creating a first time threshold to determine when to spin down the disk as a function of a period of disk inactivity;
• creating a second time threshold to determine when to spin up the disk;
• spinning the disk down when said first time:
• threshold is exceeded in order to reduce the power consumption of the disk;
• spinning the disk up when requested by a user;
• and
• automatically adjusting the first time threshold a) in a first case when spin up of the disk occurs within said second time threshold, said second time threshold beginning with disk spin down and b) in a second case, opposite to the first case, when spin up of the disk occurs following expiration of said second time threshold in order to reduce power consumption of said computer apparatus.