External Hard Drive Always Plugged In?

[TcM]

Is it ok if I leave my external HDD always plugged in? Because when i unplug it makes a sound and it's like it stops spinning.. so I'm assuming that it is always spinning when it's plugged in... so is it ok to leave it plugged in or not?

[WingedPanther]

Are you talking about plugging it into the power, or the USB port?

[TcM]

It's a portable HDD, works with the USB port only, no power supply needed

[jwxie518]

Just my few cents:

If you are using this external HDD which uses USB port to power it and to connect it, I would strongly suggest you never use it for 24/7. These USB HDD aren't traditionally as good as most of the internal HDD. If you are only using it for a few hours, fine. If you store it with music, video, and play it all the time, then I will say no to you.

Personally, my internal HDD (D drive) died a couple months ago. It last for 6 years which is really decent compare to many today's HDD which usually die within 3 years. I used it for storage and mainly for music files. I played them all the time. Before it died, I remembered I had transferred some 20+GB for a couple days. This is one of the reasons it died I believed. But for the music part, since I played the list all the time, the HDD never stops working like a cow. It gave away the life span.

So if anyone is trying to use an portable HDD for these "working" cow-like things, I would suggest to you NO. But since most of us have laptop these days, portable HDD is the only way to go unless you want to spend more money on the mobile internal or solid state drive (SSD).

But for desktop, go purchase an Internal one will save your life, unless you need it data with you. Just make sure you remove it when you don't need it. Machines never last and it's better to save the life span in any possible way, just like you will never charge your battery 24/7. For serious users, we tend to avoid battery as much as possible, instead we would power up the machine directly.

Just my 2 cents.

[Jordan]

I don't know as much about them as jwxie518, so his advice is probably better than mine. However, I have a 230Gb external WD Passport that is generally always connected to my home computer or my work computer. The difference is that I don't leave either my work computer or home computer on 24x7.

Honestly, unless you are downloading something or running a server that needs to be on 24x7, I think running a computer 24 hours a day reduces the computers life and is a waste of energy. I also extend that theory to any external hard drive that is constantly in spin.

[jwxie518]

LMAO Jordan is being funny again. He knows more than I do. It's just my two cents. Come on Jordan, don't tease me

I would say that use it in a reasonable manner. I personally have suffered with two EHDD and they died within two years. But I think the best way to electronic device is to use it right. It doesn't mean you have to turn it on 24/7, but if you did something stupid like me, transferring 20+GB stuff now and then move it back, and then transfer it again, then back again, then transfer it again and then back again, I think that hurt a lot hahaaaaa... I was doing this because I ran out of space to install my Adobe CS4 Master Collection disc.

It's also funny. A real story from my friend. People would tell you don't get those cheap power supply from newegg.com but he did. He and his brothers were big fans of WoW and they used to power on the PC 24/7. One day a lighting striked and the PC shut down. He thought it would end the life of the power supply but it was fine when he turned it on again. His power supply last for another few months until he decided to upgrade his PC and brought new sets.
There are many different sayings of good and bad, pro and cons, I would say that I am really picky and I try to avoid the "easy way". Passport seems like a great way but I personally don't trust the overall quality. I would not use it to play my music list.

I also don't like the idea of "overlocking" because it just reduces the life span and the overall performance of the CPU. I mean you will get more Ghz and what they called "better performance". But IMO, I tried it on my friend's computer, it wasn't that amazing at all. Life span is also very different in each case. My P3 computer last for 8 years before the power supply died. I still have a P3 tower computer from 1999 and used it to run Ubuntu but it only has 128RAM so it would be like 100000+ pressure on the CPU and the memory. It still works, for a year now. I guess it depends on your luck and how you use it.

It's all up to you. But remember, use it the right way that you think is the best and fit your case.

[ArekBulski]

I have heard that desktop hardware is not meant to run constantly as server hardware, due to some cooling details I think. But I really wanted to say...

I would suggest buying a standard HDD and put it into a separate casing for USB. Because those external ones are said to live much shorter, just few years. All my standard hard disks I had, 10GB then 40GB (and now 1.5TB) ran for looong years till now. Maybe because I turned off my pc at nights.

[bbqroast]

My external HDD died a couple of days before my computers drive fried.
I opened it to find it ad died since last time i checked it.