Running BU drive 24/7

[ElWardo]

Should a back up drive run 24/7 or should I turn it off at night? I just bought a 500 GB G Force drive to replace my old Iomega drive that failed after 5 years and was wondering if I contributed to its failure by leaving it on all day and night.

I have a 20" aluminum imac circa 2008.

Thanks

 

[marzer]

Should a back up drive run 24/7 or should I turn it off at night? I just bought a 500 GB G Force drive to replace my old Iomega drive that failed after 5 years and was wondering if I contributed to its failure by leaving it on all day and night.

I have a 20" aluminum imac circa 2008.

Thanks

In general yes, esp. if you use automated backup programs such as Time Machine. Five years is a pretty good run for such a device.

 

[ElWardo]

Thanks Marzer.

 

[Lancer]

I've had some HDDs fail after just a few months of normal use but others last much longer but in my experience my backup HDD goes into sleep mode between the hourly TM backups and when the iMac is asleep. So as long as the HDD is not spinning its likely to last longer.

That said I do a weekly CCC backup to a 2nd HDD which I unplug between updates.

I think with the cheap cost of HDDs now run it for a few years then get something new. You can 'recycle' the backup as an archive HDD if you want to and only plug it in when needed.

JMHO

 

[ElWardo]

Thanks Lancer, good advice.