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

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.

Its a Western Digital drive. I have tried to contact them, no luck.
I do have 2 additional back ups but it would be nice to know if I need to deplug when not in use.

ozzy

@ozzy seems like unplugging and plugging back in for playback sessions would be the same as spinning down and spinning up for playback sessions, and therefore not reduce any risk if your concern is with mechanical degradation causing a failure. Keeping the disk spinning non-stop is the way to avoid that (only to suddenly be surprised by a head crash the first time you spin down and back up).

Unless what you're seeing is that even when the Lumin is sleeping, the hard disk is constantly spinning down and up again.

I guess I probably wouldn't worry about it too much, especially if you have a backup. I'm not sure there is any hard data on what sort of sleep/idle vs. spin duty cycle is optimal but hard drive controllers and disks should handle music playing activity cycles very well. Also don't let it get too hot.

nekoaudio,
Thank you. I think for the night I will unplug the hard drive. Just to be safe.

ozzy