Leaving external HDD plugged in?

Hey, all. Just picked up a Maxtor PS3100 external hard drive on sale today to plug into my desktop to store all my important docs, do backups and share files with my notebook. My question is this: I've had it plugged into my desktop since I brought it home earlier today and putting my hand on top of it, it seems quite warm and I can also feel a slight vibration as though it is spinning. It's my understanding that it shouldn't be spinning or generating much heat unless it is in use. Is this not correct? I was also wondering if there would be any potential detriment to leaving it plugged in constantly. I intend to just leave it where it is and my desktop rarely ever gets rebooted except when it needs to be (software update, etc...) but am a little concerned that leaving it always powered on might cause it to fail prematurely based on how it's behaving right now. I am probably worrying about nothing, but thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. Thanks!

 

External drives cannot not be spun down because the power management drivers cannot interface with them.

It is usually better not to leave them on all the time. Most of those HDDs are not rated for 24/7 usage (some are). That said, the probability of failure even if you leave it on all the time is NOT high.

 

Yea those external hard drives can get pretty warm especially if you are using it. I guess to be safe, unplug it while you are not using it.

 

Good to hear I'm not just imagining things after all! Thanks for the advice.

 

Yeah, do not leave it running if the external drive does not have any power management. I leave my Seagate HDD connected 24/7, but have turned on power management which spins down the drive. See, if the Maxtor has any such feature.

 

miner, I didn't know that Seagate had that. I guess that's something DIY enclosures don't have, at least I haven't run across an enclosure that allows that.

 

IMO The seagate externals are very good actually, I have been using one of these for quite some time now and it goes into Standby mode after a few minutes of being idle.

 

Agreed. I have the Seagate 300GB model.

The Maxtor the OP refers to probably supports some type of power management. I believe that most recent setups do.

However, as previously noted...power management is the reason why I don't normally go for the "build it yourself" solutions. I'm not using mine just for occasional backups and such. I have my entire music library archived on the drive and like to keep it accessible most of the time. Therefore, I felt it was perfectly acceptable to pay the extra money for the increased reliability of having power management. Plus...it keeps it quieter when the drive spins down when not being accessed.

 

Hmmm... Checked out the downloads available for this drive last night and it appears that the only software available for it are drivers for pre-Win2k operating systems and a diagnostic utility, nothing for power management though. Guess I can live with plugging and unplugging it for the $49.99 price tag, though. Like they say, you get what you pay for, I guess.