WD Elements external HDD beeping

JustAnotherSaver

Effician said:

Looks  right.  Do you have any other usb 3.0 drives to try it with, thumb drive etc,  maybe borrow a known good usb 3 cable from a friend etc.to try with the wd element.

worth sorting as it's a pain to have to reach round the back of a pc. Use mine on laptop & tv & they're always being plugged in & unplugged .

Guess the card reader doesn't have enough power to supply the drve which is unfortunate.

This drive (that i've created the thread over) isn't the only thing to trigger the 'could perform faster' notice. Most things do if plugged in to the extension (which is plugged in to the USB3 port).

Bad cable maybe? It was only a cheap one off eBay.

Effician

I would say so. 

getmore4less

JustAnotherSaver said:

getmore4less said:

What are you using it for?

Storing files on....?

Obviously I don't get where you're coming from with that so my answer isn't in a sarcy manner.

getmore4less said:

You could just leave it behind the tower or on top of you have room
I have one down the side of my tower only needs a short lead.

I do have room for that, yes. It can sit on top.

Wouldn't constant stop-start (on-off) cycles be bad though?

Once everything is backed up I wouldn't actually need to access this hard drive daily. I don't know how often i'd need/want to access it but every time I power the PC up the drive will be getting powered. Isn't that detrimental to it (lifespan) as a portable HDD?

The key here is its a back up drive (not just to store files) once the files are on it you need to consider how secure you want it to be and which failure modes you are covering.

Also if it is just backup(infrequent) does it matter how fast it is, you just need a reliable connection.

I go back a long way and it was quite common for HDD to actually benefit from being used, left too long they would stick and need a good knock to get them spinning again.

How many years has your PC survived power on/off 

Drives are pretty robust and designed to spin down when not in use, I have a 12yo HDD in my PC that is an internal store for infrequently used files, some days it never comes up.
The same model drive that had the OS had a slow death a few years back)