Raspberry Pi PMS Keeping HDD Active

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1

I have Plex Media Server installed on my Pi, but it’s keeping my external drive from spinning down after the default sleep time. Obviously this is going to greatly reduce the life of the drive, so does anyone have any advice on how I can allow the drive to sleep? Ideally without having to SSH into the pi to start the Plex service every time. Thanks

2

Plex has always been this way. No it does not greatly reduce the life of the drive by keeping it constantly spinning. In fact, spinning up and down does far greater wear than leaving it spinning.

Consider:

  1. Heat up / cool down cycles.
  2. Head load & unload cycle count. Each drive has an absolute and quite finite limit designed by the manufacturer.
  3. When does a light bulb burn out? When left on or when you turn it on? Electronics is no different.