I have 2 external USB enclosures. I'm wondering whether to unplug them while I'm away for a week. They're 2 old PATA drives that have kept chugging for 5, 6 years now. I'm a big believer in "leave well-enough alone." The last time they were without power was 3 years ago. The machine goes to "Sleep" every night but the USB enclosures (with their power bricks) are never turned off.
So I wonder if I should just leave things "as is" - power off the computer but leave the USB enclosures alone - still plugged in. Or just unplug them.
It would help me decide if I knew the answers to few questions -
When the computer is off - unplugged - do USB drives ever spin? Do the heads ever have to move?
What about when the computer is only "sleeping" (standby) - the OS is asleep but the USB enclosures are still receiving power - do the disks / heads ever have to move?
I assume the answer is "no" for both states since there are no commands or requests to the drives... but I'm only guessing.
(btw there are no page files on hiber files on either of these external disks, "restore" is turned off, no Win backups on either disk)
Thanks for your replies.