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I am planning to move my backups to an external USB drive, the reason being that the backups are using about 90% of my home server's space and I am not able to obtain a hard drive larger than 85 GB (there are 6 on the server right now running on RAID 5).

However, I have kept the external drive unplugged and sitting on my desk in fear that plugging it into the AC will spin up the drive and cause wear, even if it's not necessarily connected to USB.

If I connect my external drive to the AC, is it true that the drive will spin up and decrease its longetivity? If not, can I just plug it into my server's USB port and set the drive offline until it is needed?

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  • The more the disk is running, the more it wears. That's normal with any mechanical device. I would get a remote switch and turn it on when needed. ==> homedepot.com/p/Heath-Zenith-Outdoor-Remote-Kit-SL-6139-D/…
    – whs
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 2:12
  • The hard drive in a DVR never stops spinning. In my opinion, allowing a drive to constantly spin down and then back up again causes more wear than just allowing it to spin at a constant velocity. I think the deciding factor is how often the drive is being shut down. If just once or twice a day, then power it down. Otherwise, let it keep spinning.
    – BillDOe
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 5:38
  • But the question is, does it spin on AC only?
    – oldmud0
    Commented Apr 25, 2015 at 4:01

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Every mechanical component will wear out the more it's used. Nowadays there are drives designed to never spin down, and drives design to spin down often, so the answer depends on the type of HDD you have there. External HDDs usually are not designed for 24/7 use and I would connect the drive only when doing the backup.

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