Internal drive as external drive

[jimlenz]

I have a western digital green 1 TB hard drive that I put into an antec enclosure and am using as an external hard drive. I use these also as external drives for my directv units.

My questions are as follows

1. Any cons to using the internal drive as external drive
2. I read in numerous place about external drives crashing and losing all data. Is the internal drive I am using better?
3. I am getting a lot of noise from the drive, I am not writing anything to it as it is a data drive. Any reason this is happening?
4. Finally, should I be leaving this drive on when i turn off my laptop or leave it on.

Thanks

Jim

 

[treefrog07]

1. No. Some enclosures seem to hold heat more than others, and too much heat can damage the HDD.
2. Can happen, especially if the HDD is not "stopped" before powering-off or disconnected from the external port. "Stopping" the drive through windows allows the MBR to be updated and closed properly.
3. Could be vibration from the spinning platters being transmitted through the HDD to the enclosure housing, or even Windows indexing the HDD.
4. I "stop" mine in windows and power-off when I'm not using it. It's still a physical HDD, why waste the RPMs and wear unnecessarily?