24/7 usage of WL-HDD?

[sjdigital]

I'm making good progress now ( ) and with help from forum contributors I've got my WL-HDD with read/write capability and ftp access. (Many thanks for this - it isn't a user friendly piece of kit, is it?)

My (hopefully) last question is whether or not it causes any problems if I leave the thing running all the time? It seems like the hard disk keeps on spinning regardless of whether or not it is being accessed from another machine on the LAN. But if I go away for a week or so, is there any problem with leaving it on so that I can access it via my spiffy new ftp system?

I did see a reference in relation to the JockyW firmware about getting rid of 5 second polling. Does that mean that the standard firmware keeps the disk busy, regardless of whether or not it is being used? And if so, is this a problem?

[gerardwr]

My WL-HDD with Toshiba 2.5" drive has been running 24/7 for over 6 months now, without any trouble.

Since I have Asus firmware 1.2.3.4 flashed the drive never spins down. With the old firmware I seem to remember that the drive does spin down.

BTW, some disks support a "spin down" mode where the drive spins down after a set time. The manufacturer of the drives may support this with a utility, you will have to check.

[sjdigital]

Thanks for the info. It's a Toshiba drive I have in my Wl-HDD and firmware 1.2.3.4 so I guess I'll just see how it goes.

[sjdigital]

An update on the 24/7 business - my Toshiba hard drive is not happy with constant running and this week started to become very noisy and finally gave up the ghost completely. I unplugged it and left it for a day or so and when I restarted it it works again but obviously is on the way out. How do I get it to spin down when not in use?

[Oleg]

An update on the 24/7 business - my Toshiba hard drive is not happy with constant running and this week started to become very noisy and finally gave up the ghost completely. I unplugged it and left it for a day or so and when I restarted it it works again but obviously is on the way out. How do I get it to spin down when not in use?

start/stop cycles reduces hdd life. better leave it running all the time and try to reduce temperature around.

[sjdigital]

Interesting! In fact the WL HDD has been sitting on an open shelf with plenty of air circulation and the hard drive is the one I took out of my note book and it is only just one year old. It's just out of warranty, otherwise I could have popped it back in my notebook and got a replacement!

I guess I'll just have to buy a new 120GB Seagate one!

[jpritzkat]

start/stop cycles reduces hdd life. better leave it running all the time and try to reduce temperature around.

AFAIK this is only applicable for 5 1/2 inch harddiscs. Notebook harddiscs can stand many many on/off cycles and they're not construced for 24/7 operation.
Fujitsu just constructed a new 2,5inch notebook harddisc that is able to run in servers etc...