Computer Guru's, Does my external Hard Drive go to sleep if its still blinking?

noromance,

You know while the Lumin is running I can feel vibrations in the hard drive. I actually placed some f-Q2 under it.

I'm going to check if the hard drive still vibrates when the Lumin is in sleep mode. Good idea!
If it doesn't, does that mean what nekopaudio stated that it may just be indicating it is receiving power?

ozzy

Ok, when the Lumin went into sleep mode the hard drive was not vibrating.
So, does that mean it is ok to leave the hard drive connected full time?

ozzy

Look OP, hard drives will last a LOT of hours working a 24/7 365 duty cycle for 5 plus years. A lot of the better drives have more than one safety feature. Notebooks actually stop spinning and go to sleep if that is what you want.  Some PARK the heads off the platters, other do all three, park the head, dump the buffer, and spin down for transport. The head won't hit the platters, while bumping the drive around.

As far a backup, the best is not another hard drive, it is not a tape drive, it would be a non magnetic drive, like a CDR, why? Magnetic fields won't wipe you stuff, FOREVER. Vinyl, CD and music rolls for the old players
will survive. All my music files are backed up on CDRs. I have 3 or 4 Memory card backups and an external HD too. You have to be careful with certain valve amps and speakers being close to your computer HDs. A lot of stereo speakers aren't shielded. BIG magnets, and hard drives don't mix...CDRs could give a hoot, ay?

Regards

What I have noticed is that when the Lumin is powered off manually the hard drive light goes off completely even though it is still plugged into AC.

So, when the Lumin is in sleep mode the hard drive light blinks which is telling me it is the usb connection to the Lumin that makes the hard drive still appear active.

If the hard drive blinking light is just a blinking light showing connection that might be ok. But I don't know, that is why I am asking the question.
I guess I do not want the hard to be running 24/7 for chance of early failure.

Thank you oldhvymec,
I have about 4TB of high rez music on the 8TB hard drive. It would be impossible to copy that much info and in HR on a CDR.

ozzy

@ozzy I think the only way to be sure what the blinking LED means is to find out from the enclosure manual or manufacturer. Sometimes it means data is being read/written, but it could mean sleep mode with the drives spun down. The LED might also be multi-color, to indicate the differences.

You should still maintain a backup somewhere for safety.