I recently bought the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 500gb external harddrive and was wondering if it would cause the external to wear out faster if I kept it on 24/7. I'm running Time Machine on it so I was wondering if there is any advantages/disadvantages to running the external all day everyday.
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Should I run my external hard drive 24/7?
- Thread starter daniel huxtable
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I think Time Machine is going to have a heck of a time doing anything with the drive is it's turned off.
I leave my external drives on all the time. There's not much point in using it for backups with TM if you turn the drive off.
I leave my external drives on all the time. There's not much point in using it for backups with TM if you turn the drive off.
just because the drive is powered on does not mean it will loose its life
the hard drive itself will spin down and not be used until it is needed
i leave mine plugged in at all times
the hard drive itself will spin down and not be used until it is needed
i leave mine plugged in at all times
obviously it won't last as many years if it's on constantly, but IMO it's worth the sooner replacement for the piece of mind that TM is backing me up every hour, every day.
by the way, I've had several externals on for years straight without incidence.
by the way, I've had several externals on for years straight without incidence.
True, but if you don't keep you Mac on 24 hours it makes no difference
You have a good point. I was assuming the computer would be on 24/7 since it was not mentioned. Aside from laptops, I don't know many people who turn off their computers between uses.
yes i keep my iMac on 24/7. i have it set so the screen turns off within 5 minutes of no action.
well i have a 2 year warranty on my external and it was only $200 so im just gonna keep it running 24/7. plus i heard turning the external off and on is not very good for it.
thank you all for your input.
well i have a 2 year warranty on my external and it was only $200 so im just gonna keep it running 24/7. plus i heard turning the external off and on is not very good for it.
thank you all for your input.
i Dont see why not... i tunr mine off once in a while,, like evry couple weeks or so or whenever i restart my macbook which is like everytime there is a new update or whenever i have ot take it to class , no point of leaving it on wasting electricity ...
also,
God forbid my iMac crashes...would I be able to reboot my computer using the backups made from Time Machine on a new iMac so all my apps and other files are installed on the new iMac?
God forbid my iMac crashes...would I be able to reboot my computer using the backups made from Time Machine on a new iMac so all my apps and other files are installed on the new iMac?
I have a Maxtor One Touch 500GB unit as my Time Machine drive. It has no power switch, so it is always meant to be on.
if you image your install disc onto the TM drive you can boot directly from it and restore from the TM backup. pretty painless
.
how would i go about doing this? sorry, i'm still pretty new to the whole Mac world.
If you haven't already done so I'd inest in an UPS (uninterupted power supply).
Power surges tend to destoy ext drives and computers but with an UPS there is that added protection. WHen there are storms about I'll turn off all my computer gear.
Get an UPS that has modem line protection built into it.
When not in use I have my ext drives turned off because if I get hit by a virus all my ext drives will be safe. I only turn them on to backup.
with the install disc in and the TM drive plugged in, go to disc utility. highlight the DVD in thse sidebar and choose "restore". THe DVD is the source, the TM drive (I use a second 10 GB partition on the TM drive) is the destination.
when the process is done remove the DVD. you shoud be able to go to your startup disc prefs and see now the install disc icon, though the media is not physically in the machine. If you are curious restart from this location. the computer will boot from what it thinks is the install disc.
Once you boot into the installer, yoou can quit out of the install process, ands from the menu bar there are options on restoiring from a TM backup. Alternatively, you can do a full install friom the disc image, and then at the end restore user accounts and appls etc. from the TM backup. I'd suggest the latter,
ok i did the following and it worked like a charm. but wouldnt i be able to boot up from the actual leopard disc and reinstall all my programs and files from time machine instead of making an image on the external? just curious.
Yes, you can, but this way everything you need to recover is in one place. Do whatever works best for you.
I don't know if this goes for external drives as well, but it is a fact that your internal HD's will last longer if you keep them on (i.e. keeping the computer on). That's because their temperature remains more constant, which avoids expanding and shrinking of metal components and connections inside the drive.
--Erwin
--Erwin