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SBT with a portable USB hard drive

steve_1979

steve_1979

pfm Member
I've tried plugging a portable USB hard drive directly into my SqueezeBox Touch and so far it seems to be working fine. My only concern is that the disk never stops spinning when connected.

So if the hard disk is constantly spinning 24/7

1. What is the life expectancy of the disk?
2. How much electricity will it be using?
 
1, Probably rather good if kept spinning, actually. Years, several of.
2. Small amounts. USB drives are 5v supply, and draw more when seeking, less when just spinning, either way capped at the what, 900mA, that USB2 can supply. I've 3 or 4 of 2.5" usb drives and even the 2TB ones don't persistently draw more than about 500mA when backing-up data. Call it 2.5W say; or view it as about £3.50 a year at 15p/kWH
 
martin clark said:
1, Probably rather good if kept spinning, actually. Years, several of.
2. Small amounts. USB drives are 5v supply, and draw more when seeking, less when just spinning, either way capped at the what, 900mA, that USB2 can supply. I've 3 or 4 of 2.5" usb drives and even the 2TB ones don't persistently draw more than about 500mA when backing-up data. Call it 2.5W say; or view it as about £3.50 a year at 15p/kWH
Click to expand...
That's good to know. Thanks. :)

With the SBT on standby the hard disk is just spinning quietly without anything happening. The read/write clicking noises stop when it's not in use.
 
Leave it on until the read/write LED on the disk stops flashing. SBT is indexing your harddisk, when it's done indexing, the only activity will be reading the file at play.
 
Just remember that the ability of the Touch to play off a local disk was a hack that kind of works...
 
I connected a 2Tb WD up to one of my SBTs, and found it took an absolute eternity to try and index the thing, then failed to actually do so.

Is there a practical limit on attached HDD size?
 
formbypc said:
I connected a 2Tb WD up to one of my SBTs, and found it took an absolute eternity to try and index the thing, then failed to actually do so.

Is there a practical limit on attached HDD size?
Click to expand...

No, but there is sort of a limit on the number of tracks and amount of metadata when using the SBT in "stand alone" mode.
 
darrenyeats said:
I think that's okay from a screen POV. But if you're worried about the disk spinning then switch off at the wall?
Click to expand...

Both of my SBT's are plugged into the mains permanently, I press into standby after using plus I've set it up to Display Off (blank screen all of the time) - I do not have a HDD attached so should I switch off at the mains completely after using??
 
irons1965 said:
Both of my SBT's are plugged into the mains permanently, I press into standby after using plus I've set it up to Display Off (blank screen all of the time) - I do not have a HDD attached so should I switch off at the mains completely after using??
Click to expand...

The powering on / off is probably worse for the SBT than leaving it on as long as the display is blanked.
 
formbypc said:
I connected a 2Tb WD up to one of my SBTs, and found it took an absolute eternity to try and index the thing, then failed to actually do so.

Is there a practical limit on attached HDD size?
Click to expand...
I'm using a 500GB HD with 64GB of MP3s stored on it and (touch wood) it seems to be fine. There were issues when I tried to use a 64GB USB memory stick instead of a hard disk.
 
Julf said:
No, but there is sort of a limit on the number of tracks and amount of metadata when using the SBT in "stand alone" mode.
Click to expand...
I have over 6000 tracks in total and they all play fine. The only issue is if any single albums contain over 100 tracks and I try to play it on shuffle it will only play the first 100 tracks.
 
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