Network Drive Question

[geoffw]

A friend of mine has just bought A Belkin Wireless-N router that has a USB connector for a Network Drive. The router lives in the loft so the USB network drive would have to be there as well. This means manually powering down the drive is not a convenient option.

I was wondering about whether the hard drive attached (in its enclosure) is continually 'running' while the router is switched on? ..... or is it 'started up' whenever a computer on the network attempts to access it?

My reasoning is this. The router is on 24/7 so IS the network drive also 'turning' 24/7. If this is the case the I would assume the life of the drive would be limited.

Comments would be appreciated???

[gem]

I don't know the answer but logically I would say that the HD WILL be running 24/7. Only software normally shuts down a HD - like when you put your PC into sleep mode. I don't think any HD's actually do that on their own.

[Mender]

I know that some of the NAS boxes available will turn the drive(s) off after a period of inactivity, and run it up again when someone access it. I don't know if the router firmware will do this, or if not, whether there will be a firmware upgrade in the future to incorporate the feature.

[silver]

router will have some kind of operating system on it and that should be doing much the same as if you left the HD plugged into a turned on computer,. whether that answers the question I'm not sure