Portable Hard Drives

Question for those who back up files onto a hard drive - do you leave the hard drive attached to the computer, or do you remove it every time you are finished backing up? In the past I've used smaller portable drives but now have a 5TB drive (and know I should still back up to multiple devices). Just wondering about the longevity of a drive if it is left attached vs. being removed especially if it isn't used everyday.

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Mine stay attached. I use a powered USB hub that allows switching off a port if you want.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I never turn them off... The majority of electronic failures happen when you turn them ON... It's basically a "controlled" surge... sometimes, it isn't so controlled. To minimize the ON process... never turn them OFF...

Hard drives have an internal table that tracks their own maintenance and longevity factors. They're called SMART drive.

SMART stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology and is a monitoring system included in hard drives that reports on various attributes of the state of a given drive.

There is software available to read that data and let you know when a drive is reaching its normal end-of-life use...

Originally Posted by Andy W

Mine stay attached. I use a powered USB hub that allows switching off a port if you want.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is interesting even if I decide not to turn them off (referencing Fred's comment below). For anyone - I have one USB 3.0 port and the rest are USB 2.0. So if I were to get this, could I attach multiple hard drives and transfer files from one drive to another and still have the speed of the USB 3.0?

Originally Posted by FredKingston

I never turn them off... The majority of electronic failures happen when you turn them ON... It's basically a "controlled" surge... sometimes, it isn't so controlled. To minimize the ON process... never turn them OFF...

Hard drives have an internal table that tracks their own maintenance and longevity factors. They're called SMART drive.



There is software available to read that data and let you know when a drive is reaching its normal end-of-life use...

Thanks for this info, Fred. I have a laptop which I turn off every night so the drives would still get powered up daily. So how would that factor into the equation especially if I were to get a power strip like Andy listed even if I don't turn them off? I could really use more than one USB 3.0 port.

I have two. a 4 TB HD and a 2 TB SSD.1 keep both attached. The SSD is what I use as a daily backup the HD is weekly. My intent is to update this system next year. I will keep the SSD, but add something like this.

https://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Thunder...s%2C219&sr=8-3

Thanks for this info, Fred. I have a laptop which I turn off every night so the drives would still get powered up daily. So how would that factor into the equation especially if I were to get a power strip like Andy listed even if I don't turn them off? I could really use more than one USB 3.0 port.

Read more: https://nikonites.com/computers-and-...#ixzz6kI5NKpaD

It's the On/Off cycle that's injurious Cindy... regardless of the time interval between cycles... Review the power options on your computer, and just let it go to sleep... Power management is NOT an exact science... You need to be ON some form of power management system. The better ones are built into a good UPS... <-- who's primary function is to maintain constant power (which prevents unnecessary power cycling)

You can get HUBs on Amazon for not much money to extend/give you more USB ports...<-- you can even chain them to a max. of 127 ports... USB 3 is backward compatible to 2... and if you plug a 3 into a 2, you won't get the speed benefit, they'll just operate at the 2 speeds...

Originally Posted by Danno

I have two. a 4 TB HD and a 2 TB SSD.1 keep both attached. The SSD is what I use as a daily backup the HD is weekly. My intent is to update this system next year. I will keep the SSD, but add something like this.

https://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Thunder...s%2C219&sr=8-3

Wow, that will be an impressive addition for you, Dan!

Originally Posted by FredKingston

It's the On/Off cycle that's injurious Cindy... regardless of the time interval between cycles... Review the power options on your computer, and just let it go to sleep... Power management is NOT an exact science... You need to be ON some form of power management system. The better ones are built into a good UPS... <-- who's primary function is to maintain constant power (which prevents unnecessary power cycling)

You can get HUBs on Amazon for not much money to extend/give you more USB ports...<-- you can even chain them to a max. of 127 ports... USB 3 is backward compatible to 2... and if you plug a 3 into a 2, you won't get the speed benefit, they'll just operate at the 2 speeds...

Thanks again for the great info, Fred.

I got a 5TB recently from costco and just leave it plugged in.
Mostly for backing up my computer, but I did set up a seperate partition fro my wife's and her's can do the backup over the network.

Originally Posted by mikeee

I got a 5TB recently from costco and just leave it plugged in.
Mostly for backing up my computer, but I did set up a seperate partition fro my wife's and her's can do the backup over the network.

Do you ever turn off your computer? I turn my laptop off every night. After doing some online searching and reading numerous reviews, I ordered this AC Powered USB 3.0 Hub. I have 5 or 6 WD My Passport portable drives as well as quite a few JumpDrives (thumb drives).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Originally Posted by hark

Do you ever turn off your computer? I turn my laptop off every night. After doing some online searching and reading numerous reviews, I ordered this AC Powered USB 3.0 Hub. I have 5 or 6 WD My Passport portable drives as well as quite a few JumpDrives (thumb drives).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I turn my computer off every night, but the usb power on mine is there even when it's powered down. (Unless I use the power switch on the back). My wife will use my computer to charge her phone if they are not powered up! lol (I built this computer of parts myself. Her's does not have power on the usb ports when shut down)