samsung external hard drive

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teh_rapcat

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Jun 26, 2008
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Hello,
I've just bought this samsung story station 1tb 3.5" external drive. Tbh it's my first external one. So i was wondering should I keep it on all the time, or it's better to turn it off when not in use? It's being used as multimedia storage
 
I'm not familiar with your unit but most external drives without a fan will cook the drive if on for 24/7.

I'd turn it off while not in use.
 
Many of the pre-built externals (from WD/Seagate in particular, Samsung possibly) will actually put the drive to sleep when not in use... Something the DIY enclosures won't do, so it might not make much of a difference either way. If built properly a fan-less unit can work just as well as those w/a fan, by acting as a big honking heatsink for the drive (it's gotta make snug contact w/the side of the drives and be made mostly out of metal to conduct heat away tho, w/o big dead spots that would trap it inside).

Personally I've had all three kinds of enclosures, pre-made ones from WD, a nice metal one that held the drive in a plastic sled and had a slim 80mm fan under it, and now a nice chunky aluminum one sans fan... 'Cept for the last one I bought (Ultra linked in my sig) they all died after a couple of years (2-4) but the drives inside them survived unscathed anyway (still in use). We'll see how the latest one pans out...

Obviously if it's placed in reach and it doesn't bother you to turn it on whenever you need to access it (or at the start of the day) then by all means, turn it off every once in a while.
 
Impulse said:
Many of the pre-built externals (from WD/Seagate in particular, Samsung possibly) will actually put the drive to sleep when not in use... Something the DIY enclosures won't do, so it might not make much of a difference either way. If built properly a fan-less unit can work just as well as those w/a fan, by acting as a big honking heatsink for the drive (it's gotta make snug contact w/the side of the drives and be made mostly out of metal to conduct heat away tho, w/o big dead spots that would trap it inside).

Personally I've had all three kinds of enclosures, pre-made ones from WD, a nice metal one that held the drive in a plastic sled and had a slim 80mm fan under it, and now a nice chunky aluminum one sans fan... 'Cept for the last one I bought (Ultra linked in my sig) they all died after a couple of years (2-4) but the drives inside them survived unscathed anyway (still in use). We'll see how the latest one pans out...

Obviously if it's placed in reach and it doesn't bother you to turn it on whenever you need to access it (or at the start of the day) then by all means, turn it off every once in a while.
Click to expand...

Many drives don't offer a power button now and turn on and off when the PC. I'm not sure if they do it by watching the vcc and ground wires or the data lines, but thats what alot of them do now.
 
teh_rapcat said:
Thanks for replies everyone. Well the drive seems to spin down when it's not in use. It's this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152178&cm_re=story_station-_-22-152-178-_-Product
It also does turn itself off when i shut down my pc (there's also an on/off switch on the unit). Guess it's kinda safe-ish to keep it on while my pc is on, right?:)
Click to expand...

I'd say so, I have the same drive, I just keep it on all the time. It does put itself to sleep after so and so minutes of inactivity, never noticed any excessive heat from it either.
 
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