BleepingComputer.com: External Harddrive queston

I just bought a Rosewill R2-JBOD 3.5" USB 2.0 DUAL-BAY External Enclosure and a Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive.
Right now I have a My Book 500 gig. The My Book turns itself off if it isnt used. I dont think the Rosewill does. My question is, Is it bad to leave the harddrive on? It does has a fan so it will stay cool. I have to download very large files for one of my jobs and I am running off a cable modem so I need to download for long periods of time. Thank in advance!

Leave it on for how long?

When I used a USB-connected HD, I left it on all day, since I leave my systems on from the time I wake up until I go to sleep.

I don't leave my systems on overnight, I see no benefit in such.

One thing to bear in mind is that a USB-connected drive may possibly interfere with XP booting or rebooting...so I would suggest that you not connect/power the drive until the system has booted.

Louis

I usually leave my computer on all day and turn it off at night. I run vista so will i still have that problem?

hamluis, on May 22 2009, 03:40 PM, said:

The problem arises from the fact that...Windows inventories components as part of the boot process. I don't have Vista installed, but I'm sure that the system behaves the same way when booting.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/index.cf...2&forumid=1

Louis