USB HDD Sharing

[STEVEBROWN69]

Hi all, I'm hoping someone can help here.

I've been playing about with the USB HDD sharing option on my Vodafone WiFi Hub recently and while it's literally plug and play to set up, there's one thing I'm uncomfortable with. When connected to my PC, the drive is clever enough to spin itself down when not in use but not so, when plugged into the router - it remains spinning 24/7. It's not going to get much more than a few hours use a day so having it constantly running is both wasteful energy-wise and is bound to reduce the HDD lifetime significantly too.

Has anyone had the same problem? If so, did you fix it or did you end up living with it?

Ta in advance for any help you can give...

[HappyNomad]

The power saving is a feature of the operating system on your PC rather than of the HDD itself.  Unless specifically written into the router’s firmware,  your router won’t have any power saving capability beyond allowing you to manually select LED status lights on or off.

Something you'll have to live with until St Greta of Thunberg demands action on router power saving 😁😀😁

[STEVEBROWN69]

Right, I see... that makes sense, sadly. I think I have a THG3000 - whatever the standard Vodafone job for GigaFast accounts is anyway and all you can do in there config-wise is turn SAMBA on or off so I guess I'm onto plums then!

If the router won't give me the control I need, what about setting up one of those cheapo Android TV boxes as a Samba server, hanging it off one of the network ports on the router and plugging the drive into that instead? It would be a bit of a clunky workaround but I guess it would at least introduce an OS that might allow spindowns.

Does that sound like the easiest way to crack this particular nut or am I missing something a bit less sledgehammery? Anyone got any thoughts?

Ta in advance!

Edit: Oh I should say, I know adding another device would likely use more power than spinning down would save, but my primary worry is more of HDD lifespan than power saving per se. I don't think the external HDD in question is designed for permanent activity.

[HappyNomad]

My direction of travel would be to bung the HDD into the PC (via an external usb enclosure if no internal space)  and buy a quiet and energy efficient SSD for the router shared drive.

[STEVEBROWN69]

Ah yes that would be an ideal solution, but the problem for me there is the USB HDD in question has a resonant frequency that makes it really quite noisy and terribly annoying when running, so it can't sit on (or in) the PC without being a constant irritant. The original reason for hanging it directly off the router was because it sits in a cupboard, far enough away for any vibration to be a problem. It all works perfectly in practice, I'm just concerned now that the drive isn't designed for 24/7 operation and might expire prematurely due to never being turned off. Maybe I'm being too anal about it and should worry less 😀

Nevertheless, I'll probably have a play about with the Samba Server idea to see if that works, but if anyone can point me to a simpler pre-built option that would save me having to repurpose an Android TV box then that would be ideal! Any thoughts?

Ta!

[anoldfart]

Pester Customer Services for a Firmware update, even HDD with a sleep function do not work as the router seems to be constantly querying the HDD, the Read/ Write is constantly flashing and one can feel the vibration from the activity

[anoldfart]

I am having the same problem with 2 HDD, one 3TB and the other 6TB.  I have used both these usb3 HDD with other routers, the last being the BT Smart Hub2 and before that one of my own, a TP- Link and the HDD always have gone into power saving mode.  Something with the Vodafone WiFi Router (black squsre edged with icon only on front) keeps the HDD active, I can hear the read/ write activityevery few seconds with the indictor light constantly flashing  

At first I thought it could be compiling a media listing but this has just gone on too long, weeks infact.  I cannot discard the router for my own TP-Link as I had planned because i was given false information when I signed up, namely that the VoIP phone connection used a seperate ethernet device.

[anoldfart]

Just finished long CHAT with representative who asked me what a HDD was and denied HDD sharing was possible, that only with the drive connected to a PC , Tablet etc, would a HDD work.  Very disapointing standard of EXPERT!