"yawnmoth" <> wrote in message
news:b2701c5a-b0f1-42b0-be33-…
>I have 2x 1TB hard drives and would like one to be a backup of the
> other. I could set up a RAID0 array, or something, but what I was
> thinking I’d like to do, instead, would be to use robocopy to keep the
> two hard drives synchronized. Maybe run it through the Windows
> Scheduler once a week or once a month and turn the drive off when it’s
> not in use.
>
> I’ve read that turning the drive on and off can be worse the drive
> than just keeping it on, but I don’t imagine that’s true if your
> keeping it off for days or weeks at a time.
>
> I’ve also read that the main cause of hard drive failures isn’t
> related to the fact that the platters spinning but rather due to the
> head writing. Be that as it may, I’d still be worried that Windows
> would try to periodically read or write to it even when I haven’t
> accessed content on it, myself, for several weeks.
>
> Finally, I’m aware that Windows has a Power Management thing whereby
> you can turn hard drives off, but in this case, I don’t want all hard
> drives to be shut off – I just want one to be shut off.
>
> Any ideas?
news:b2701c5a-b0f1-42b0-be33-…
>I have 2x 1TB hard drives and would like one to be a backup of the
> other. I could set up a RAID0 array, or something, but what I was
> thinking I’d like to do, instead, would be to use robocopy to keep the
> two hard drives synchronized. Maybe run it through the Windows
> Scheduler once a week or once a month and turn the drive off when it’s
> not in use.
>
> I’ve read that turning the drive on and off can be worse the drive
> than just keeping it on, but I don’t imagine that’s true if your
> keeping it off for days or weeks at a time.
>
> I’ve also read that the main cause of hard drive failures isn’t
> related to the fact that the platters spinning but rather due to the
> head writing. Be that as it may, I’d still be worried that Windows
> would try to periodically read or write to it even when I haven’t
> accessed content on it, myself, for several weeks.
>
> Finally, I’m aware that Windows has a Power Management thing whereby
> you can turn hard drives off, but in this case, I don’t want all hard
> drives to be shut off – I just want one to be shut off.
>
> Any ideas?
Considering that recent drives are good for hundreds of
thousands of start/stop cycles, I don’t think you have
to worry about that. Also, you don’t have to worry
about frequent reads and writes. That’s what hard
drives are designed for. The biggest enemy of a hard
drive is heat. If you intend to use the drive infrequently,
an external enclosure is you best bet. Make sure you get
an enclosure with good cooling.
