External Hard Drive Basics

[AlexisR]

First, I am total tech "newbie." I recently purchased Iomega 500Gb external hard drives- one for an XP, the other for a Vista machine. I was wondering if it's advisable to turn off the these external hard drives when they are not in use. BTW...I use my XP computer much less often than the Vista. But I make a point to use it about 1-3x per week, with the idea of taking some of my "PC use workload" off the Vista computer and not letting the XP sit idly for extended periods of time. Is this practice actually advantageous? Maybe I should actually use the XP computer minimally-if at all- and just keep it as a back-up if my newer PC should break down(?)
Thanks!!

[T.J.]

The short answer to your question is no as leaving an external hard drive running isn't particularly harmful. External hard drives in particular typically "spin down" or turn off after a period of inactivity whether you want them to or not. The next time you access the hard drive it spins up - the cause of the delay you sometimes experience after you haven't used the drive in a while.

[AlexisR]

Thank you!