Safer to leave external HDD running 24/7 or turn off after each use?
 

I have an external HDD inside a Spire or something case with no fans. After running for a bit it gets pretty damn hot. I'm always scared of it overheating or something and corrupting my stuff.. but I've accidentally left it on for days before and all seems fine. I hadn't used it for like a month and I turned it on yesterday and it kind of scared me because it wasn't showing up on my computer right away. So the question is...?

i am not sure if its bad or not but i never turn mine off unless i am rebooting..had 2 of them for over 1 yr never had any issues

You should buy another one as backup rather than wondering if your HD is going to fail... (there's a lot more than heat which can kill a HD!)

Well I keep a few backups on my computer, and copy them to the external, also have them sitting on my host from downloading. I figure that's enough, hopefully all 3 don't fuck up at once, eh.

That's a very good start... now all you need is an extra external that gets rotated offsite regularly. :thumbsup

If all 3 goto shit at once I guess it was meant to be lol.

Anyone know for sure which way is best? BTW I've had this external for probably 5 years at least without a problem :crosses fingers:, even leaving it on for days in a house with no A/C and FL summer heat/humidity, talk about a stress test lol, I could've literally cooked an egg on the case alone, anyways I always try to shut it off if I'm not using it. So it seems to be leaning in that direction..

I leave mine running all day, and some have been online for 2+ years
Duke

Most drives I've checked have their "maximum" SMART temp set at 55C. Nothing horrible or magical happens when you hit 55.1C, but at that point you're technically overtemp.

In a room without air conditioning during summer an external without forced air flow could probably get near to or above this figure. :2 cents: Don't forget it's not just ambient that matters, the heat of the drive itself has to be shed, without a fan it's just by thermal radiation through the shell of the enclosure (which often has a bad thermal connection to the drive itself... in effect it's insulating it!)

I have about 15 and have had very few issues leaving them on all the time.

i leave mine on all the time

If its actually being used 24/7 and not idling maybe look into the western digital AV drives, they are designed for 24/7 use they are only $10ish more than the WD green drives fwiw

Nothing wrong in turning it off when not using it. A drive that doesn't spin live longer. Most drives today have sleep functions, but unless it is really professional gear made to be used all the time, I suggest you simply turn it off when leaving your computer.

:2 cents::thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

Same here.

I have many of them backing up content, and do not turn them off.

turn it off when not using and make a backup

They're also designed to return an error very quickly when there's a problem reading a sector, so that streaming isn't interrupted. A few hundred corrupted bytes in a video stream will be almost imperceptable.

AV drives should NOT be used for general data...

my hdd is always on, but it doesn't spin when not being accessed, it goes to standby/sleep mode like after 5-15min.. i think in windows in power management there is an option for that