do the drives spin down when not in use and connected to PC via USB?
475147
If you buy cheap externals like I did yes but it will also force your RAID into read only. If you spend the extra on NAS drives then you're fine. It's not the enclosure that dictates that but the firmware on the drives themselves.
475148
There are leds for each drive, they flash when the drive is accessed. I don't know if the drives are spinning, but I do know that if I haven't accessed a drive in a while, there is a slight delay. Almost like they are not spinning. The unit shuts down when I power down my computer, but need to push button to start. Will not activate at boot. Hope this helps.
475149
That is not controlled by the Mediasonic. Drives have various configurations, and software settings can be involved. Check your Windows power options, for example. There is software that keeps drives spinning for specified time periods during inactivity. My Mediasonic has Western Digital Caviar Black drives attached to a Mac. No spin down issues.
475150
yes, my goes into a "sleep mode" when not in use after about a minute or so. On the front are a row of blue lights indicating the hard drives are in use. When in the sleep mode they are not lite but when processing they are scanning with blue lights. My 4 hard drives serve as independent and are not tied as one large hard drive. I have three 2 TB and one 3 TB in my case. Works well for me. Never trust any hard drive........I back up with at least two external back ups. I have four external hard drive from WD & Seagate just so I do not loose data. Using the cloud would be out of the question for me.Hope this helps.Bill M. yes, my goes into a "sleep mode" when not in use after about a minute or so. On the front are a row of blue lights indicating the hard drives are in use. When in the sleep mode they are not lite but when processing they are scanning with blue lights. My 4 hard drives serve as independent and are not tied as one large hard drive. I have three 2 TB and one 3 TB in my case. Works well for me. Never trust any hard drive........I back up with at least two external back ups. I have four external hard drive from WD & Seagate just so I do not loose data. Using the cloud would be out of... » Read More yes, my goes into a "sleep mode" when not in use after about a minute or so. On the front are a row of blue lights indicating the hard drives are in use. When in the sleep mode they are not lite but when processing they are scanning with blue lights. My 4 hard drives serve as independent and are not tied as one large hard drive. I have three 2 TB and one 3 TB in my case. Works well for me. Never trust any hard drive........I back up with at least two external back ups. I have four external hard drive from WD & Seagate just so I do not loose data. Using the cloud would be out of the question for me.Hope this helps.Bill M. « Show Less
475151
USB Drives don't have the capability to sleep, unless the unit turns itself off, it would be impossible to send the hardware signal to sleep the drive. They've mentioned the unit turns off but in my experience it turns off until you turn it back on again by pressing the button, it's not the "sleep until accessed" that you get with eSata/Sata drives.
2097069
I noticed the same on mine when I was transferring a lot of data onto the new drive. It is very quiet now, although any large program installation will make the drive somewhat noisy. Placing it sideways will not change or help things. It's very quiet in normal usage.
897717
Unfortunately I don't have a solid answer for you, but I bought mine used and I believe it is NOT a static (fixed) drive. Here is a little more information about fixing static drives: http://superuser(dot)com/questions/699417/usb-making-tool-for-windows-detects-flash-drive-as-fixed-need-to-be-seen-as-rem
6223
Yes, I have had similar issues with other external, enclosed USB hard drives. That is, they get VERY hot, and then shut down after about 30 minutes of operation. These enclosed drives are pretty much useless unless they have a vent and cooling fan. I really don't know how anyone uses them successfully. The only way I have been able to use them is to keep them completely open, which means removing all the casing and just laying the bare drive and it's connenctors out in open. Pretty ugly, but it will run all day like this :-)
501858
That usually depends on the BIOS/OS... this did not seem to stop spinning with Win 8.1, but then, I only use it for system back ups.
457430
The drive is very quite for a large storage device. I have 2 hooked up and it's still quite. They only spin up when you need them.
1936144
Cant say. I haven't had any issues with my drive at all. Its been working great for me the last few months. Mine has been HIGHLY reliable to the point
1819658
I have two, one for the laptop and one for the desktop. I've had both for about 8 months, and not a single problem. These things can take more of a beating than regular HDDs (not like you should be beating them:( )but alas, as with all technology, some do fail. I'm good so far though! Not packing them full of files helps.
2212849
No, the drive does not have a "on and off" switch. The drive has its own power source, so it is on, as long as it stays plugged in.
1727351
solid state drives do not spin unless it is a hybrid drive. I do not think this model contains a hybrid drive.
1813864
I only use the dock to do a backup from my laptop so I power it up when I begin and then turn it off at the end. I've never left it on long enough to see if the drives power down after a period of inactivity. Sorry I can't be of more help.
14748
actually the drives are about as hot as when they're in the ext enclosures. I found that out when i opened the enclosure on a ext drive that had just been shut down and checked the temp inside the case.
1813865
I have the single hard disk enclosure from StarTech. Yes, that one does spin the HDD down after about 10 mins. of inactivity. So, this should do it too! I verified this by plugging unit into my router (Tomato) USB port as well as my desktop's (NUC). I used WD RED NAS hard disk.
2159680
I don't think so as it's not labeled as being that. If it does power down I haven't noticed it. Latency isn't really much of an issue any more - smaller disks spin up very quickly. Mine is doing a TimeMachine backup as I type. The drive is silent and the case is only slightly warm to the touch.
2133
First, HOWEVER you use your hard drive, it is spinning incredibly fast and likely to be housing a lot of your important data. It should be treated with RESPECT and placed where it CANNOT easily be bumped, knocked over, stepped on, or even be subject to significant vibration. Posts like yours make me wonder how many user complaints of drives failing are due to abuse. That being said: In my experience, I'd strongly advise you to consistently use the drive in the SAME orientation whenever you use it. So if you want to lay it on its side, fine. But do so from the first time you use it, and ALWAYS do that. These modern USB drives now run under some intense conditions, often with no fans, etc. No sense placing extra stress on them or their bearings, drive heads, etc. by running them both horizonally and vertically. (Such drives are just "ordinary" internal hard drives placed in cases with a USB interface to make them convenient to access externally, and make them portable. Such drives are placed in ordinary PC's in whatever orientation is convenient for the manufacturer -- most often horizontally ("on their side"), FWIW. (I've been fooling with PC's since IBM first came out with the standard IBM DOS PC in '82, and used seemingly innumerable hard drives in many configurations, as I was a "data geek" so I have some idea what I'm talking about here).
531139
No. However, there is a special link that provides for more manual fan control. Starting/stopping mechanical drives produces higher faults and lower MTBF times. SSD drives are not so affected.
2144523
I never had any trouble with mine. I did have one time where it was not plugged in all the way to the drive. lights should come on to tell it is working and the usb's need to be both plugged in to the usb ports. I carry a 320g drive as an external to copy information when restoring peoples computers.