self-powered portable drive attached to airport extreme?

[r6girl]

i searched on this based on the drive i want to get, but did not find anything that addressed my specific question...

i recently got the latest airport extreme base station, and since i have leopard and time machine is now possible with a usb drive plugged into the router, i wanted to give it a go. i'm eyeing the western digital passport (portable) drive - i figure it would be handy to have a portable drive in case i do find the need to take it out and about with me at some point. however, would it be bad (i.e., subject the drive to drastically more wear and tear such that it would fail much sooner than normal) to keep this drive plugged into the ae base station constantly?

i know that the base station can power a usb-powered drive, so i'm not worried about that. i'm just wondering whether or not i should lean toward a standard external drive with its own power source and fan given how i'll be using it...

any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Jozone]

As far as I know a drive being bus powered has no adverse effects on the lifespan of the drive.

Ultimately the AE is deciding when to spin up the drive, and an externally powered HD (which will presumably left on) will spin the same amount.

 

[r6girl]

Ultimately the AE is deciding when to spin up the drive, and an externally powered HD (which will presumably left on) will spin the same amount.

thanks! that is a good point. i guess i worry about a bus-powered drive essentially being "on" all the time with the base station (i never turn off the base station unless we're going on vacation, and even then i forget to do that before leaving) - i think of a firelite portable drive i have now that is always on whenever it's plugged into the firewire port on my macbook, regardless of whether or not data is being read/written. and that little bugger gets pretty warm...