Hi,
TL;DR: Does it harm the external HDD if I leave it plugged into the Shield 24/7??
I just bought the 2017 Nvidia Shield TV.
I have lots of movies in my 1 TB external HDD, and I usually watch 2-4 movies a day.
My question is if it harms the HDD if I unplug it when I'm done with it and then plug it again hours later? Is it better if I just leave it plugged? Won't it shorten the HDD's life?
What do you guys do usually?
I highly doubt whether you leave it in or unplug it would there be any difference. Doesn’t the HDD turn off when the Shield is asleep anyway? I’ve kept an external HDD plugged into my desktop for months on end. Also kept the same one plugged into my Shield constantly for multiple days. I don’t think there’s anything for you to worry about.
When you put the Shield to sleep, a few mins later or every now and again I'd advise checking the HD to make sure it isn't on. I eject mine now after I'm done or put the shield to sleep because I would notice sometimes an hour or more later that my HD never stopped running. I'm just warning you because that can put a lot of extra strain on your drive. The only sure way is to power off the shield completely but then it's kind of a PITA having to turn it back on.
talk about over thinking something
...
Just leave it plugged in.