Second Hdd

ibshaw · 30 Jan 2014

Hi, I am hoping this is not a question that has an obvious answer. I recently purchased a WD 2T 3.5" internal drive that I was going to use for primarily backup in an external SATA dock then I thought I could add it as a second internal drive in my HP mini tower which I am fairly certain could take a second disk - the thought being it would allow the other 3.5" SATA drives I have to be used in the dock and copy to the newly added second drive. However, since this is a WD green drive which is a lower power cooler drive and hence supposedly more reliable and should last longer, would it not run continuously all the time the PC was on ? My basic question is.... if I fit it as an internal drive is there any way in software or otherwise to reduce its use until such times as I actually wanted to read/ write to it or is being permanently attached mean it would be spinning continually and hence reduce its life. Maybe it would not matter since are these drives not designed to work 24/7 anyway ?

Would appreciate your comments.

Thank you.

carwiz · 30 Jan 2014

The way I understand it is that the "green" drives are self controlling. They idle down on their own then wake when I/O activity is requested. That's the reason they're so slow. They may be good for backup but I would never use one for data or a system drive. (YMMV) There's a power option that allows shutting down disks but this option affects all drives when the PC goes to sleep.

ibshaw · 30 Jan 2014

Thank you for such a quick reply - it was never my intention to ever use this drive as a primary or system disk as I am aware of its limitations as to its performance. The reason I bought it was solely for backup/ storage but thought fitting internally instead of in the external dock would mean I could copy to it from my many other external disks. I was just concerned that fitting internally would mean it was spinning continually while the PC was on thus, possibly, reducing its life. I am aware of the power options for drives and, as you alluded to, is for all drives in a system. I will get a hold of the detailed spec from WD and see if it is worth considering fitting internally. Thanks again for your comments.

Lady Fitzgerald · 30 Jan 2014

I strongly recommend that you do not use an internal drive for backups. Your original game plan of using the HDD in a dock is much safer.

ibshaw · 30 Jan 2014

Just to clarify - if I decide to use the drive internally, it would be as a secondary / slave drive completely separate from the main system drive. There is no suggestion of using it for any other purpose other than backup.

Lady Fitzgerald · 30 Jan 2014

ibshaw said:

Just to clarify - if I decide to use the drive internally, it would be as a secondary / slave drive completely separate from the main system drive. There is no suggestion of using it for any other purpose other than backup.

I understand. There are several reasons why it's a bad idea to use an internal drive for a backup drive. If a virus gets into your computer and corrupts your data, the data on the backup drive will also get corrupted. If the power supply shorts out or a power surge blows through your surge arrester (you do have one, right?), it could send a death zap to all your drives, including your backup drive. If someone decides to steal your computer, there goes your backup with ole Light Fingers Louie (having the backup away from and out of sight of the computer will help prevent that).

ibshaw · 31 Jan 2014

Thank you for the advice - it all makes sense and most of which I was aware of.... however, I never thought of the theft part !!!

So, will probably just keep it external on the SATA dock.

Thanks again.