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To: SI Ron (Crazy Music Man) who wrote (93712)	7/9/2016 11:23:53 AM
From: Eric L	1 Recommendation Recommended By Gottfried Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110642

Opinions Vary: Should I Disconnect My Backup Drive When I’m Not Backing Up? There's really no right or wrong answer on this one. Unlike USB connected 3.5 external desktop drives which generally stay connected low cost 2.5" externals which draw power from the USB port are designed to be portable and are often shared between different computers. This however, is the more prevalent opininion on the subject whether the external is a desktop or portable: Many people with desktop computers disconnect there external drives when the drive is not needed. This however is not a good practice — it shortens the life of the external drive. Constantly turning it off and on causes wear and tear and also, over time, may affect the data on the drive. It’s best to leave the hard drive plugged in and set to turn on and off with the computer. Since desktop computers are not very portable and you’re not going to be moving it around often, just leave it plugged in; leaving it plugged in will extend the life of your external drive and also ensure that your files and folders are being backed up incrementally [if chosen] ... If you’re using a laptop you’ll, of course, have to unplug your external whenever you move your laptop. Many people, including us, use our laptops like desktops — so we leave our external drives plugged into our laptops all the time except when we have to take our laptops with us. thundercloud.net Leo Notenboom who has written several books on the subject of backing up hss adressed the issue several times in his Ask Leo newsletter. His response here typifies his viewpoint which I share: Is it safe to leave my external backup drive connected? ... Like many questions that I deal with, this is one of those scenarios where the answer is rarely a clear yes or no. I have a preference, but ultimately, the answer is… it depends. ... My fairly strong opinion is that if you’re backing up to an external drive, leave it plugged in. Otherwise you'll be missing backups on those days you forget to plug it in. ... In my case, I leave the external drive connected all the time ... don’t like “the inconvenience” of having that external drive disconnected. It may sound silly, but there’s a real issue here. If you’re backing up and you disconnect the drive, you have to remember to plug it in again. Personally, I’ll forget to do that, which means I’m not backing up my computer. To me, backing up is much too important to rely on my falible memory. ... My preference is that if you’re backing up to an external drive, leave it plugged in always. Make sure that everything is configured to happen automatically so that backups happen whether you remember them or not. askleo.com - Eric L. -