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Location: God's Gift to Mankind for flying anything
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It was my assumption that electronics will last longer if they are constantly "on".
They are then at a constant temperature and not subject to temperature swings which might damage the system ...
I have a similar situation to the OP.
Four USB drives hooked up via a powered USB hub. The Hub is plugged into the powered USB port on my laptop.
When I turn the unit on in the morning, everything is "powered up".
The system stays "on" until I go to bed.
The laptop has a smallish SSD drive and all the working files are stored on the external drives.
So far no problems ...
It was my assumption that electronics will last longer if they are constantly "on".
They are then at a constant temperature and not subject to temperature swings which might damage the system ...
That is a correct assumption. If your HDDs spin down when not used (I suggest 15 minute spin-down.) Most of the stress on any electronic device occurs during power up and power down.
It make no sense to leave them to cycle each day if you aren't using them. It makes total sense to put them in a safe place if you use them only for monthly backups.
NAS makes total sense. They're more "industrial" and are designed to run 24/7 with no power cycles. All my NAS have been up and running since the most recent power failure. I've verified, they spin down and go dormant when not in use, even the fans stop.
It was my assumption that electronics will last longer if they are constantly "on".
They are then at a constant temperature and not subject to temperature swings which might damage the system ...
And AIUI current inrush can be humongous during power-up and stress the heck out of certain components in CE gear.
Designers sometimes include thermister components to deal with it.
I'd leave all my stuff on all the time if it weren't for the lightning threat, and it being un-green.
And AIUI current inrush can be humongous during power-up and stress the heck out of certain components in CE gear.
You are exactly right. More things die on start up than upon shut down.
And very true, if you are subject to lightning strikes you don't want any gear attached. We rarely have such storms in LA but when we do I run around unplugging sensitive electronics.
If the power goes down unexpectedly I do the same. Power outages often cycle several times. That's a worst case scenario.
I unplug a whole lotta stuff when I go on vacation.
I unplug my externals and plug them back in when I need them. It's not so much the mechanicals that can fail but the electronics, plus there's less danger of me accidentally bumping them or whatever.
As for internal drives, I am also a firm believer that leaving them on is better and for that matter that applies to the whole PC, not just the hard drive. I also had a server (Dell Poweredge) from 2005 until recently, when I decided to "decommission" it. It wasn't doing anything very important, just running as an AV administration server, so I delegated that to another SQL server I built. This server was a RAID 5 SCSI if you believe that. What's the last time anybody used SCSI? I put it in storage and could easily power it back up at any time. I had two other servers from 2007 that I also put out to pasture, still have them but replaced with newer equipment. I am a firm "if it ain't broke" believer but there are limits.
Anyway, as has been mentioned turning equipment on and off repeatedly will create more "stress" on the electronics than just leaving it on. As for the externals, I seldom use them, only for backups or to play media every now and then and it makes no sense to leave them on.
Before my NAS (rarely need external HDDs any more, maybe do one backup for off-site storage) I used to put my externals away since I used them once a month.
Actually it is better to let your computer run 24/7 as longs as you have the settings for the HDDs to spin down in maybe 15 minutes of disuse. I used to run mine weeks on end 24/7. My dedicated server has probably been running for years.
That's why SCSI is skuzzy.
Externals are messy and junky. That's why I like NAS.
Before my NAS (rarely need external HDDs any more, maybe do one backup for off-site storage) I used to put my externals away since I used them once a month.
Actually it is better to let your computer run 24/7 as longs as you have the settings for the HDDs to spin down in maybe 15 minutes of disuse. I used to run mine weeks on end 24/7. My dedicated server has probably been running for years.
That's why SCSI is skuzzy.
Externals are messy and junky. That's why I like NAS.
I use NAS at work where we need it attached to the network 24/7 for backup purposes. I have several NAS that run that way and have for years. For my house, I was using regular externals where I store movies, music etc. I got tired of having several different externals for different content and went out and bought one big one, an 8tb where I consolidated everything and use the smaller drives to backup the large one. I also run a full time server from which I run a DVR for my cameras, FTP server, streaming music, movies etc. When I need it, I plug in my 8tb but most of the time it is on the shelf unplugged. Since it is connected to my server as a shared drive, it is essentially the same as a NAS.
For our company, we don't "spin down" anything, they run at full speed 24/7. At home I don't put them to sleep either, there's no need. MTBF for black and gold WD SATA drives are as follows.
WD Black: 300,000 hours MTBF = 34.24 years
WD Gold: 1TB have 3,000,000 hours MTBF = 342 years
So even given the lower number of the Black, that is 34 years MTBF. So, there's no reason to spin down drives, you will not help them last longer. The only consideration would be energy savings but that is not a concern either way. Granted, they will not run forever even given those numbers but that will give an idea as to the reliability.
I use NAS at work where we need it attached to the network 24/7 for backup purposes.
You must have misunderstood my post.
You let NAS run 24/7. It's smart enough to go into sleep mode and stop the discs from spinning. Turning off NAS would be improper use.
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