[HavFun]

Setup the large hard disk to "sleep" after 5 or 10 minutes of not being used. You will get no "wear" on the hard disk while it is sleeping--you will have to wait 7 -9 seconds for the hard disk to "wake up" after being asleep, but compared to the hours or days it was in sleep mode before you needed it, that short wait to access the hard disk is not much of a problem unless you need something every 15 minutes or something. Some newer devices need exFAT for compatibility, particularly on removable media (USB memory devices for example). If the data on the hard disk is important, consider a RAID hard disk enclosure. Just add a second hard disk and the RAID operation will automatically replicate everything on the second hard disk and maintain the same data on both hard disks as you use the system. If one hard disk fails, you just insert a new hard disk, setup the format, and RAID will re-establish a copy of all the data on the new hard disk. Also note that different external hard disk enclosures offer different levels of performance. For example, a Western Digital MyCloud setup as a RAID device is not fast enough to stream video files created from UHD/4K sources on discs. A 2 hour movie can have as much as 50-85 GB of video and audio data and while the WD MyCloud device is reliable and suitable for documents and photos where peak speeds aren't as much of a concern, they just don't move enough data by Ethernet connections for the highest-res video and audio. I had to change to Netgear ReadyNAS 4-series drive enclosures in order to stream UHD/4K video reliably with up to 13 channels of sound in TruHD/Atmos, DTS:X/HD-MA, or Auro-3D/Auromatic.

 

[boobymilk]

Good informations about that RAID stuff.
But about that other topic: Isn't "sleep" one of the main reasons why a HDD wears off?
I heard that 1 spindown and the following spinning up is much worse for the HDD than leaving it spinning for many hours unused.

I have not much experience about HDD's that sleep or spin down, but I had a HDD running for about 15 years, without any problem.
The HDD that I am talking about would even now work. It was never on sleep settings. I literally can say, that the HDD had about 2000-3000 spin-down's and was running 24/7 sometimes for weeks - for 15 years.

So in my experience, the sleep-mode is nothing I really want and it was the first thing that I disabled when I plugged the HDD first into my PC.
But I am willing to listen to other experiences and opinions, because I really just want what is best for my hardware.

I thought that most people will agree, that sleep mode is bad for the HDD 😮

 

[jonnyb]

In my opinion a larger drive does not last longer than a smaller drive. Don't like them, always seeing bad sectors on these large drives right out of the box.

 

[HavFun]

But I am willing to listen to other experiences and opinions, because I really just want what is best for my hardware.

I thought that most people will agree, that sleep mode is bad for the HDD 😮

There are 4 things that damage hard disks: 1) an electronic component fails--this is more likely going to be due to static electricity than any actual fault in parts; 2) heat causes an electronic or mechanical part to fail; 3) a bearing supporting the platter can fail; 4) a shock can cause the read/write head to break through the layer of air between the head and the platter causing the head to "crash" into the moving platter. Sleep mode cools the hard disk and stops wear on the bearings. And when the platters are stopped, the read/write heads are "parked" beyond the diameter of the platters. So even if the hard disk falls on the floor, there will be no damage if the hard disk is in sleep mode when that happens. Does leaving a car engine running 24 hours a day make the engine last longer? No. Does leaving a hard disk running all the time "make it last longer"? Not when you're talking about 2.5 or 3.5 inch platters. Maybe if you were talking 8-inch or larger platters things might be a little different in regards to spin-up but the mass and inertia are HUGE on 8-inch platters and tiny, almost nothing in modern 2.5 to 3.5 inch hard disks.

 

[boobymilk]

CONCULSION:
Well, as I said, I want to post my thoughts and my conclusion of this, to answer the question "Is it worth the stress to format and change to NTFS?".
And oh boy, it is.


I will tell you why:

- I saved 4TB of space because of the smaller cluster size. YES, 4TB!!!

- The HDD has now all features that make NTFS superior compared to exFAT when used on Windows (such as journaling, compression, etc.)

- The HDD made some really intensive "clicking" and "shaking" before, that made the whole desk vibrate. Now it works much softer and calm. It is much more silent. (Maybe because of the HDD having smaller chunks to skip when searching small files)



So if the HDD is used only (or mostly) on Windows, I really very much recommend to format it to NTFS.
It took me about 1 week to copy back all the files, which were 10TB and now only about 6TB.

Somehow even the task of copying all the files back to the HDD was much faster. When I copied the files to the same HDD formatted in exFAT, it took 14 days, and now with the HDD formatted as NTFS it took only about 7 days. Possibly because of the chunk size, too.