[Norbert]

I just picked up a 250 GB Western Digital HD from Sam's club last weekend and I've transferred all my music to it. At their website they give kinda conflicting info about leaving it on. They state:

"The initial power-on process is generally harder on the internal components of a drive than spinning for extended periods. However, Western Digital drives are designed to handle either scenario. Most users outgrow their drive before repeated turning on and off becomes a problem. Turning on the drive a few times per day is considered normal usage and should not pose any problems. If a drive is turned on and off excessively on a daily basis, this could affect its longevity."

So, I guess it doesn't matter?

 

[jwsisme]

I would not turn it on and off a bunch of times each day.
It's better to leave the drive running.
The external unit the drive is in might die a bit sooner if you leave it on all the time, but the hard drive should be safe.

 

[Chri5peed]

I've had a Firewire/USB 160GB one for years, I use it as a back-up, i.e. a copy of my FLACs are on it, but seeing as though this computer has a 250GB HDD(a WD one actually) Foobar reads from those FLACs on this drive.

Therefore my external drive is not needed for use. It gets turned on when I need it, once or twice a day, occasionally this might rise to 5 max? I've noticed it gets quite warm if its on for an extended period. May I add that it is one of my most useful buys.

 

[NiceCans]

IMO they run too warm to be left on when not in use, and serve best as a backup device (unless your enclosure is one that has a fan for drive cooling).

 

[star882]

There should be no problems if it's a good enclosure.

 

[JJ15k]

I leave my music HD on all the time, I don t think it s a problem, however, whatever you do the drive will wear off, I just got rid of two old HDs I had that were causing the pc to have an erratic behavior, as soon as I got a new one, no more crashes. So keep an eye out for problems.....

 

[Norbert]

Thanks for the advice. It looks like I will leave it off when I shut my computer down at night. I really only use it briefly in the morning and in the evening. I'm gonna back up my FLAC files to DVD RW's, it'll take ALOT of DVD's but I guess it would be worth it if I ever have a hard drive failure.

 

[JJ15k]

yeah, whatever you do, BACK UP!! sooner or later you ll be glad you did.

 

[JahJahBinks]

on the average I access data from external HD about once a week, so I turn it off when I am done with it. If you gonna use it on a daily basis, it's probably better to leave it on. It does get warm even when idling, so make sure you don't cover it up completely.

Also remember that the reliability of HD goes down as the on time goes up, so if you find yourself accessing data off your external HD often, then it is probably a better idea to buy yourself another HD just for back-up.

 

[mrarroyo]

I access my external HD about every 4 days. I turn it on for the time I need it which usually is about a 3 hour session. The rest of the time it is off.

 

[skudmunky]

I only turn on my external when I need it, which can be twice in a week, or only once in a month.

 

[Sparky191]

I have a number of external drives and IMO they all get too hot if left on all the time. Same with internal HD enclosures for silencing drives. Eventually I get data corruption if left on continually. If I was going to use a drive all the time I would get a 5.25" enclosure that you fit some fans to. I should add that any drive I have with a lot of data on it, its duplicated on another drive somewhere. You can get dual, quad and even larger external drive enclosures. For example...

http://www.cooldrives.com/qudrmifi80dr.html
http://www.usbgear.com/LEXUS_bay_rem...re800_lcd.html

Of course alternative you could use an old PC tower and network it to your main unit.