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Originally Posted by azamsaghir1
My initial query was whether or not the HDD will die early through constant spinning.
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It will. But it will also die early when it is constantly started and stopped.
In the datasheet of the disk you can usually find the number of times it is designed to start and stop, and the number of hours it can be running. These are of course design parameters, not guarantees.
Don't confuse this with the MTBF (mean time between failure), which is a statistical number and not a typical lifespan indicator.
My experience with years of always-on PCs: the disk will die. Sometimes after 3 years, sometimes after 5 years, but it will die.
Be prepared. Make backups of important data. In my PC I only use RAID-1 setup but it is unpractical in the dreambox.
When considering the dreambox, I would mostly look at the temperature. Maybe fit a small fan somewhere in the box to provide some circulation. Typical temperatures in a dreambox are 35-40C with the disk sleeping, and 50-60C with the disk running.
And also remember that after a 3 year lifetime of a harddisk, the capacity of disks on the market (for the same price, usually) has increased so much that you were probably thinking about buying a new disk anyway. And nobody would want to use your tiny old disk, so impossible to sell it anyway.
With that in mind, it does not matter too much how long it will live, at least when you have backups.
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