Running a HDD enclosure 24/7 with passive cooling

Green drives aren't that much cooler.

I would never run an external 24/7 without active cooling.
 
Interesting. Should I assume 5400rpm laptop drives would have the same problem in a passive enclosure?

Any recommendations for enclosures with quiet, active cooling? I already own one of those Rosewills, and the fan is too noticeable.
 
Since you're looking at the WD Greens anyway, maybe consider getting on of WDs premade externals. Their enclosures have no fan but automatically spin down the drives when not in use
 
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Replace the fan. You don't need much air moving, so you can get something you can't hear across the room.
 
Should I assume 5400rpm laptop drives would have the same problem in a passive enclosure?
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I've never had any problem with 2.5" drives, even the 7200rpm units, in passive enclosures but I've never tried 24/7 operation.

AFAIK there aren't any 2.5" external enclosures with a fan.

The only enclosure I can recommend is the Antec MX-1. I've seen 'um on sale for 30.00.

I've heard good things about other units but I have no experience with them.
 
Old Hippie said:
I would never run an external 24/7 without active cooling.
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Agree 100%

Bought a couple of WD external 3.5 drives about 4 years ago. Both were passively cooled.

Ran them 24/7 and they both failed in less than a month. At the time it wasn't common for the enclosures to spin the drives down during times of inactivity.

I still don't think I would run a passively cooled external desktop drive 24/7 even if it did spin the drive down.

2.5 inch drive, sure. 3.5 inch? no.
 
Jimmy the Greek said:
I'm looking into buying an expansion drive (1TB or 1.5TB WD Green) for my DVR, and putting it in an enclosure (possibly http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173043)

I'd rather not leave the fan on. Running passively, would the HDD be a ticking time bomb in terms of heat? Or being a green drive, would that mitigate it?
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I have done that for the past 5 years with 3 external drives (still running as we speak).
My desktop is a laptop, and I use the external drives as extra spindles for my VMware VMs.
All the drives are regular 7200 RPMs drives (320GB WD).

A few things though:
1. You need a reliable enclosure (I have had good luck with those made by AMS [the Venus line])
2. I use 5.25" enclosures to ensure good air circulation (I disconnected the fans on mine - no issue)

In fact, I also have a 3.5" AMS Venus enclosure, but it was a little less reliable (when I tried using it 24/7) as it would drop from my system once every few months.
Now, the issue could have been the 250GB Maxtor drive I had in it, and a simple power cycle of the unit would bring it back up and running.
 
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