[azndragon684]

hey guys, i work at a company that uses alot of hard drives. one of the issue, is theres an old guy working here thats very stubborn and old school. he always leaves the hard drive on and eventually they burn out. Right now theres 4 hard drives that are daisy chained which required all of them to be on. he is too stubborn to eject the hard drives cause he would have to unplug the USB or unplug the power supply to reconnect the hard drive to to the imac. Is there a program of some sort that mounts the hard drive?

sorry if this is a redundant questions, just curious. If theres no program that does it what would you recommend to make the hard drives last longer using minimum effort??

 

[raptor_pa]

Bottom line is I always let the drives spin. Motors tend to freeze when the drives restart. If these are External drives, that is a different issue. Thos drives have trouble with heat buildup and should not be used to store data that is mission critical. External drives are not a replacement for an additional internal drive. Unless it is an external drive, your 'old school' guy is the one who is correct....

 

[azndragon684]

they are external hard drives. i have 3 of them that are daisy chained...i bought a firewire hub assuming it would be easier for him to unplug (since they dont have power switch) but he still doesnt unplug them. He's burnt out 3 hard drives already its beginning to add up...

thanks for the help

 

[azndragon684]

any way around it? or just manually unpluggin them

 

[JimE]

As noted, external drives should be powered off when not in use.

 

[MudPuppy2015]

As noted, external drives should be powered off when not in use.

I have had me WD 80GB hard drive at least 10 years. I have always left the hard drive on when not in use. Of course unless the computer is turned off when away from home for a long tome which only happens like 2 or 3 times a year. And also during thundershowers.

I have never had any problems with the hard drive.

 

[JimE]

I have had me WD 80GB hard drive at least 10 years. I have always left the hard drive on when not in use. Of course unless the computer is turned off when away from home for a long tome which only happens like 2 or 3 times a year. And also during thundershowers.

I have never had any problems with the hard drive.

Then that drive is an exception and falls into the .01%. Internal drives don't always last that long, and much fewer externals. Much less drives that are always on.

In any case, my recommendation is still valid.

 

[MudPuppy2015]

Then that drive is an exception and falls into the .01%. Internal drives don't always last that long, and much fewer externals. Much less drives that are always on.

In any case, my recommendation is still valid.

If I could ind my receipt I could get he exact age.

 

[sobeit]

first of all I would check to see if the harddrives did burn up by taking them out of the external case and try them. most external drives power down when not in use. it is not constantly spinning so power should not make a difference on the drive itself.

If they are burning up, are they on a surge protector? if not, they should be. bad power can also mess up drives.