External HD, leave it on or off?

The_Other_One

The_Other_One

VIP Member
This is mostly about my external harddrive, but also my less used DVD-RW... Both are external drives. The harddrive is used for storage. I might use it for a little while(play MP3s) then leave it for a good bit just idle. The little case has a fan, but it doesn't get much air flow. Would it be better to leave it on, or flip it on only when I need it. Sometimes I just feel like I'm just sitting there cutting it on and off and I just feel it's not good for it...
 
Yeh, i would agree with LITTLEHOOV. An external hard drive is just like an internal one, it still has hard drive platters and mechanical arms, turning it on and off isnt going to do it much good. You dont delve inside your case and pull the power from your 2nd internal HDD when your not using it..........???
 
dragon2309 said:
An external hard drive is just like an internal one
Click to expand...
I know how it works, I built it :P It's actually the old drive from my old system...

Yeah, just my main concern is that it does get rather warm. I guess I'll try to leave it on more. I would tell it to spin down somehow(like with power management) but when my main drives spin down, they refuse to spin back up :rolleyes:
 
Have you tried spinning it down or not. It's worth a try, might just be on your newer drives that it's not working.
 
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