external hard drives maintenance?

I have Windows XP Media Center.

I have two external hard drives with data on them (photos and digital video). I have both hooked up through USB 2.0. One is a My Book Premium; the other is a Western Digital (previously an internal drive -- now in an external case).

My question is whether I should keep both on at all times? Should I only turn them on when I know I will need to access the data?

Thanks for any advice.

 

Is there an article on this site that I am missing on this issue? If so, might someone throw up a quick link? I have looked but cannot find. Thanks!

 

The greatest stress is placed upon electrical/electronic equipment at the moment of switch on, and to a lesser extent at switch off. You may have noticed more light bulbs fail at switch on than any other time.
Eventually of course the running wear will outweigh the switch on stress and the kit will fail anyway. Also you have to pay for increased power whilst stuff is running.
So the $64,000 question is At what point do I switch off ?
For computer equipment a good rule of thumb is switch off if you are not going to use it for more than 2 hours. Beyond that the increased electricity costs will be greater than the reduced life costs.
You are talking about data storage drives and where the increased longevity might be more important to you than the electricity/wear. Nevertheless you should still take sensible backup measures as failure strikes at the most inopportune moments, as witness many of the threads in Major Geeks.

good luck

Studio T

 

Thanks so much StudioT.

Can you take one more question?

If so, is it okay to turn these on/off while computer is running? (I usually turn my computer off at night. But my externals seem to still be on then.)

 

Switching off live will do no harm. USB is designed to be 'hot plugged'.
Don't forget to 'stop' the devices by doubleclicking on the usb icon in the bottom right first or you computer will nag you.

Studio T

 

StudioT: I need to use "safely remove" even if only turning it off and not unplugging USB?

 

yup

You will not harm anything except your sanity if you simply switch it off.

Studio T