External hard disks are a must for keeping up to date back ups of your data. Be it USB, FireWire, or eSata, almost everyone is using one. There isn’t any argument about whether or not you should use one, but should you leave it spun up all the time? Let’s break down the pros and cons of leaving your external drive spun up:
Pros: Instant access to your files, no delay when opening save dialogues.
Cons: Incessant noise, potentially more wear and tear on the platters.
For some folks, time is the most important factor. They just cannot wait for the disk to spin up when they want to access it. Frankly, the delay while the drive spins up when you open a save dialogue is a tad ridiculous. If the OS handled the drive better, it would only spin them up if you attempted to access it.
On the other hand, external drives tend to be very noisy. My iMac is whisper-quiet. When I walk into my bedroom, I can’t even tell that anything is powered up… Until my godforsaken FireWire drive decides to spin up. I am then treated to the glorious sound of whirring for the next minute and a half. If I had to deal with that noise pollution all the time, I would go absolutely bonkers.
It should be noted that there is some debate about wear and tear on drives. Some people argue that they’ll last longer if you keep them spun up. Others argue the exact opposite. As far as I can tell, there is no conclusive scientific data either way. As long as your drive is stationary — therefore not likely to be dropped — this really shouldn’t be much of a factor.
So what about me? I let my drives spin down because I hate the noise so very much, but the decision is up to you. There are good reasons on both sides of the table. What do you do with your external drive? Comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter to let me know your thoughts..
Photo Credit: broma
February 4th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
I have two USB HDDs, both unfortunately connected to a USB2 hub, connected to my iMac. Every time I need to save a file, I have to wait for them both to spin up, irrespective of the power saving setting I use.
The best solution? Invest in a NAS. It’s on the network, it stays connected and a simple network request for a file makes it spring into life. Also, for the additional cost, you can set up a RAID array to cater for one of your drives conking out, something the external drives won’t afford you.
I’ve found that the amount I’ve spent over the years on external drives roughly equates to the 4.5Tb Synology DiskStation I have under my desk and it’s also accessible by all the machines on the network, irrespective of whether the Mac is on or not.
February 4th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
I found that my external drive wouldn’t sleep over USB. It only spun down when I used it on FireWire.
Thanks for your input, Steve. :-)
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February 4th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Steve – How would you compare the Synology Disk Station to the Drobo?
February 5th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
@Gerard – I did some research when I bought the Synology, but was looking mainly at a features vs. price whilst doing so. Living in NZ and having to pay duties on whichever NAS I bought, I found that the Synology had great reviews for a very reasonable price on eBay. It works brilliantly and has built in iTunes, photo, video and web servers, all controlled from a neat web interface. It can also capture surveillance footage from a webcam and can have additional USB drives attached if needed. The model I bought was the DS-409 with 4 Samsung EcoGreen F2 1.5Tb HDDs. Bear in mind that it’s not hot-swappable, but it does cater for RAID configurations.
The only issue I had so far was when a fuse tripped in our house, causing the PSU for the unit to stop working. However, the Synology Customer Services team received my support ticket and mailed me a free replacement within 5 days, which even to NZ is impressive!
Overall, a great product,
February 4th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Grant – Is there any way in OS X to have the external drive always spun up? I agree with you though that having them spun down is quiter and easy on the ears. I just haven’t seen a setting that allow them to be always on.
February 4th, 2010 at 11:34 pm
In the energy saver pane of System Preferences, there is checkbox for allowing the drives to spin down. If that is what you’re looking for…
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February 4th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
I thought that was only for the internal HDD. I didn’t realize it was a global setting. Thanks.
February 5th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
My external drives are always spun up. I hear that if you are planning on keeping a drive in storage it should be spun up once a month. The NAS I only power on when I use it, or once a month, whichever comes first. I do not own a quiet computer.
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