I have an NAS (Lenovo ix2-dl) but only use it once or twice each week, mainly backup files and watch the videos. The HDD are desktop version (don't remember WD green or blue). For the longevity of the data and disks, shall I keep them running 247 and power on only when in use?
Is It Better to Turn off NAS or Kepp Running 247?
tooblue on 14/02/2021 - 16:01
Last edited 14/02/2021 - 16:10
Last edited 14/02/2021 - 16:10
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Just always have it switched off. Use much less power that way.
Where's you poll?? lol
If you're using it for weekly backups, then only turn on when needed. You're not using it as a typical NAS with continuous use; save your power and run hours.
If you DO change use cases to continuous, then that's when you'd also have to consider UPS protection, NAS-grade HDDs, redundancy etc which will have a bigger impact on your reliability than power-off cycles.
NAS-grade HDDs
I've rethought this after listing a bit to the self-hosted podcast, specifically episode 5 where they talk about hard drive rituals.
I now look at hard drives as "it's going to die", so why spend a premium on one that might last a little longer? Everything on that disk should be backed up, and if you're going to the effort of a NAS, you should probably utilise RAID to minimise downtime due to disk failure (remembering RAID is not a backup).
If your utilising RAID, why get a WD Red for $99 when you can get a WD Green for $59 (drive & vendor selection solely for example)
The most wear on mechanical HDDs occurs during spin-up and spin-down cycles (when you turn their attached PC/NAS on or off) when the read/write heads come to rest on the parking area of the platters and the spindle motors have to either slow down or speed up. This obviously increases the voltage loads of the HDD and the chances for mechanical failures to occur (such as catastrophic head crashes) due to the mechanical movements involved.
Keeping HDDs spinning, especially enterprise-grade HDDs that are specifically designed for 24/7 operation, is vastly safer as the read/write heads will constantly float over the platters in a fairly narrow band of movement and the spindles motors will rotate at more or less the same RPM without varying.
This is essentially analogous to the difference in wear and tear on an internal combustion engine that's done 100,000 kilometres of mostly highway/freeway driving at high speed with very little stopping versus 100,000 kilometres of suburban, start-stop, short distance driving; the latter always produces more wear as the mechanical parts are subject to far more physical changes in energy, temperature, pressure, velocity, weight/mass, etc.
If you're using a NAS with specifically NAS/Enterprise-grade HDDs, I would leave it on as most NASes consume very little power compared to full tower gaming PCs and the hard drives are specifically designed to be running all the time.
The HDD are desktop version (don't remember WD green or blue)
If they're WD Greens then the firmware will be putting them into sleep mode after 8 seconds of no disk activity, and from memory it's impossible to disable that feature even with NASes and controllers that allow you tinker with HDD sleep modes.
The other problem with Greens is that their TLER/CCTL time-out values are not customisable so they're quite notorious for causing issues in RAID arrays when they encounter errors and find and move bad blocks.
If you're definitely using WD Greens, I would ditch them ASAP as they should never be used in NASes, especially when the data is considered remotely valuable.
If they're WD Blues, they're fine.
If they're WD Greens then the firmware will be putting them into sleep mode after 8 seconds of no disk activity, and from memory it's impossible to disable that feature even with NASes and controllers that allow you tinker with HDD sleep modes.
Not quite - see https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/hacking-wd-greens-…
I don't know that still applies, given that post is from 2014 and WD Greens have undergone many architectural and firmware changes since then. I mean there's simple utilities like this one that get around the problem by constantly "pinging" the drive with a small write at a set interval, but WD Greens are just flat out a pain to use anyway given that seek times are dramatically blown out when they have to wake from sleep.
They're still not worth it for NAS usage due to the locked TLER/CCTL time-out values which is bad news for RAID arrays (much worse than constantly going into sleep mode) and due to the fact WD Greens use spindles specifically designed for single drive environments with no vibration dampening. When numerous HDDs are running in small enclosures, the vibrations generated can definitely be transmitted to neighbouring HDDs. WD Reds and other NAS/Enterprise-grade HDDs are fitted with vibration-dampening spindles which actually produce less rotational vibration through better balancing tolerances and absorb excess vibration better.
Not to mention the Green line doesn't exist for hard drives anymore, hasn't since 2015.
@Trance N Dance: Yeah that's a good point; I haven't dealt with them in so long that I didn't realise it's only their SSD range that has Green models now.
It's probably worth ditching them all if they are in fact WD Green HDDs as they well past their EOL now.
Your NAS probably only draws about 50 watts. If it’s on 24/7 then that’s 50 x 24 x 365/1000 = 438 kWh per year. At 20 cents a kWh that’s $87.50 per annum in power. If you turn it on and off you’ll be increasing load cycles on your drives. Personally I leave mine on 24/7.
Omg $80 a year that's massive I will turn it off more often now
I keep mine in sleep when I'm not home. One less heat source to worry about. On for the whole weekend for back up / media while I'm awake, and for the routine maintenance tasks while I'm sleep.
Probably worth keeping it running - that NAS only uses ~20W with both drives spun up (source). Turning it off for (eg) 8 hours overnight will just put extra wear on the drives and not save a whole lot of electricity. At 20c/kWh, that's only saving you ~$12/year based on 8 hours off ($18 with 30c/kWh) and you're constantly having to mess around with turning it on/off vs knowing it'll always be ready.
Good pirates seed 24/7.
I turn off between 1am to 7am whole I'm sleeping unless in the peog8of downloading big torrents but some other will say turn on 5 years non stop.