how do turn off an external hard drive

[jdow]

From: "Mike McCarty" <mike.mccarty at sbcglobal.net>
> Michael A. Peters wrote:
>> On Sat, 2005-09-24 at 17:02 -0500, Michael Hennebry wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>>How do I turn the power off?
>>>Just unplugging would seem a bad idea.
>> 
>> 
>> There really isn't a need to power off a hard drive.
>> They generally get more wear and tear from powering on then they do from
>> being left on.
>> 
> 
> Do you have any real data to back that up?

There is a surprising amount of data on this if you dig around the
manufacturers' sites deeply enough. And do note that some drives are
designed for "consumer service" with power cycles once per day and
maybe 6 hours per day use while others are designed for always on
services. Aside from one ill fated IBM series, in which they tried
this "designed for consumer service" face save, I've found that those
>2.5" drives which are left on 24/7 survive longer than those which
are not in my experience, which amounts to perhaps 50 drives over the
years from real ST-506 drives through modern drives.

I've also noticed that laptop (2.5" drives) do not last for beans in
normal laptop use. I've no idea how they behave in 24/7 use. It's too
hard to keep a portable machine powered 24/7. {^_-}

{^_^}