Should i set my external HDDs to sleep when inactive?

[BoogieTrain]

Generally speaking, is it healthier for the HDDs to remain spinning most of the day

Or have them spin down after x minutes idle, but spin up at least ten times a day when I need to access them (or use spotlight for any reason)

 

[old-wiz]

I don't think you can set the external HDDs to sleep from the Mac. Usually the external HDD s have their own firmware for sleep after inactivity. I know my firewire 400 external HDDs sleep on their own - I get beachball for a few second when I try to access them if I haven't used them for several minutes.

 

[BoogieTrain]

There is no separate option for external hdds, but the one check box in the power saver preferences takes effect for my internal and external harddrives. With the box checked, my external drives would spin down after a few minutes and when i would spotlight or try to access the drives i would have to wait for them so spin up again. It is much more convenient to have them not go to sleep but I feel like having them running almost 24/7 is bad to do. Then I got thinking that maybe having them spin down and back up several times a day would actually be doing more damage? The main reason I would like my drives to sleep is at night when they will be idle for hours at a time. Perhaps if I could set the idle spindown time to an hour that would solve my dilemma.

In this thread, though, Im just wondering what "drains" a hdds life faster: leaving it running vs spinning down and back up several times each day.