Should I leave External HD turned on?

[drewel]

Recently, I bought a GigaSave external harddrive enclosure. I love it and it works perfectly with my Powerbook. I use the external HD about 3 or 4 days per week. When I am not using it, and leave it on, it's almost like it's sleeping as there is no noise or heat (as a previous HD enclosure created a lot of heat).

With the above info, do you think I can leave the HD turned on round the clock? The reason that I ask is that my main concern is preserving the on/off switch. Any thoughts?

 

[Sesshi]

Some enclosures sleep. Others don't. Some turn themselves off automatically when you disconnect them (logically or physically). The 'dumb' enclosures are probably best switched off when not in use. The rest - well, they're designed to turn off when not in use.

If you put your ear to the enclosure and you can hear a sloshing-spinning noise, I guess it's same to assume your drive has gone to sleep.

 

[combatcolin]

shove your ear up to your external HD and put your system to sleep, if the noise and pitch of that that noise changes then your drive is asleep.

I don't think external HD ever really spin down to a complete halt, they just power down to a point where they use a lot less juice can spin up again fast.

 

[drewel]

I guess that leads me to ask... does anyone know if GigaSave enclosures sleep? I did not see any write up on the small manual that came with it.

 

[Karpfish]

if they sleep or not, i will keep mine on ll the time. They can get used at anyy second because my pictures go directly onto them, so its a pain to mount them every time i need them which is a lot if i were to turn them off.