Seagate Backup Plus 3TB USB 3.0 External HD $99.99 FS

[Gareth]

Black wrote:
I guess power strip is a possibility, but it would have to be one drive per power strip which gets kind of dumb.

You could use something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Four-Chan...d_sim_e_13


http://www.amazon.com/American-Pc-100A-M...pd_cp_MI_0

[Grateful11]

Black wrote:
[quote=Grateful11]
[quote=Bosco]
These do not have on/off switches. However, you can hook it up to a power strip and use the switch on the power strip to turn it on/off. That's how I handled the problem with the drive connected to my WDTV Live.

I let my 2 - 1Tb WD's run all the time, in fact I let all my ext. run all the time.
I would rather have backup drives off except during the backing up process. I guess power strip is a possibility, but it would have to be one drive per power strip which gets kind of dumb.
It's been debated many times on here as to whether drive should even be allowed to spin down. I think
it's always kinda split 50/50. My 2Tb Verbatim also runs all the time because it's holding all our movies
and TV series for the AppleTV.

Where I used to work the CNC machine I ran had a 1Gb HD, which is huge for a machine tool built in '99, and
almost every time we had a 3 day weekend it would not spin up. I got desperate one day and remembered
reading about someone lightly tapping on a HD to get it to spin up. So on many occasions I did just
that with the plastic handle of a screwdriver, then we did a quick backup and finally replaced the
drive. The last I heard they replaced the drive again with an SSD.

[Grateful11]

Gareth wrote:
[quote=Black]
I guess power strip is a possibility, but it would have to be one drive per power strip which gets kind of dumb.

You could use something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Four-Chan...d_sim_e_13


http://www.amazon.com/American-Pc-100A-M...pd_cp_MI_0
I like that but the 4 outlet unit has the outlets on top instead of in the back like the larger one.

[miK.]

I'm actually checking THIS one out at the moment (Coupon code "TURKEY10" drops it to $139.99)
I think the drive inside it is a Toshiba, although I've heard it can differ.

LaCie 3TB Minimus USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive
http://www.jr.com/lacie/pe/LAC_302004/

[Racer X]

Costco has a 3TB USB 3 drive on their 3 day sale next weekend for $100. I'm sure if you use your Costco AmEx card, if you have one, it will then have at least a 2 year warranty.

http://www.blackfriday.fm/ad/costco/seag...rive/54797

[Black]

Grateful11 wrote:
[quote=Black]
[quote=Grateful11]
[quote=Bosco]
These do not have on/off switches. However, you can hook it up to a power strip and use the switch on the power strip to turn it on/off. That's how I handled the problem with the drive connected to my WDTV Live.

I let my 2 - 1Tb WD's run all the time, in fact I let all my ext. run all the time.
I would rather have backup drives off except during the backing up process. I guess power strip is a possibility, but it would have to be one drive per power strip which gets kind of dumb.
It's been debated many times on here as to whether drive should even be allowed to spin down. I think
it's always kinda split 50/50. My 2Tb Verbatim also runs all the time because it's holding all our movies
and TV series for the AppleTV.

Where I used to work the CNC machine I ran had a 1Gb HD, which is huge for a machine tool built in '99, and
almost every time we had a 3 day weekend it would not spin up. I got desperate one day and remembered
reading about someone lightly tapping on a HD to get it to spin up. So on many occasions I did just
that with the plastic handle of a screwdriver, then we did a quick backup and finally replaced the
drive. The last I heard they replaced the drive again with an SSD.
Thank you Grateful, but I'm not sure that's germane to my situation as I'm talking about a drive I turn on about once a week for 20 minutes of backup and at times less often than that. Another issue is I don't want it available at all since it's an exact backup of my internal and I don't really need everything to come up double in a search, or accidentally end up saving files to the backup rather than the internal-- and I don't see the point of unmounting a drive only to let it spin for no reason, and unwantedly be available again if I have to restart.
All that said, my personal opinion is that the life of a drive is closely related to heat X time, which is many magnitudes higher/shorter with a drive that never spins down.

[Black]

Gareth wrote:
[quote=Black]
I guess power strip is a possibility, but it would have to be one drive per power strip which gets kind of dumb.

You could use something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Four-Chan...d_sim_e_13


http://www.amazon.com/American-Pc-100A-M...pd_cp_MI_0
Thanks, Gareth, but all my externals except a bus powered portable My Passport have power switches.