how do turn off an external hard drive

[Jim Cornette]

jdow wrote:

> From: "Mike McCarty" <mike.mccarty at sbcglobal.net>
>
>> Michael A. Peters wrote:
>>
>>> On Sat, 2005-09-24 at 17:02 -0500, Michael Hennebry wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> How do I turn the power off?
>>>> Just unplugging would seem a bad idea.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> There really isn't a need to power off a hard drive.
>>> They generally get more wear and tear from powering on then they do 
>>> from
>>> being left on.
>>>
>>
>> Do you have any real data to back that up?
>
>
> There is a surprising amount of data on this if you dig around the
> manufacturers' sites deeply enough. And do note that some drives are
> designed for "consumer service" with power cycles once per day and
> maybe 6 hours per day use while others are designed for always on
> services. Aside from one ill fated IBM series, in which they tried
> this "designed for consumer service" face save, I've found that those
>
>> 2.5" drives which are left on 24/7 survive longer than those which
>
> are not in my experience, which amounts to perhaps 50 drives over the
> years from real ST-506 drives through modern drives.
>
> I've also noticed that laptop (2.5" drives) do not last for beans in
> normal laptop use. I've no idea how they behave in 24/7 use. It's too
> hard to keep a portable machine powered 24/7. {^_-}

Laptop drives fail miserably, especially IBM/Toshiba travelstar drives 
for 24/7 operation. I have replaced a considerable amount of drives 
(over 300, mostly IBM/Hitachi , 2.5 inch drives) that developed a 
coating from excessive heat on the controller circuit boards for 24/7 
operation.

Laptop drives have roughly 330 hrs of rated operation per month. When 
the drives are never powered off, it does not fully  cool and heat 
buildup will eventually kill the hard drive. They are desgned for 
roughly 10 hr a day operation, not for continuous use.

Just from my experience and a bit of feedback from maufacturers of 
product related to 2.5 inch disks.

Jim

>
> {^_^}
>


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