External Hard Drive Always On with Raspberry Pi NAS Server

[Harsheybar]

Hi there,

I recently purchased a Western Digital 3TB External Hard Drive, with the intention of setting up a NAS Server for the house via a Raspberry Pi. However, I am concerned the prolonged usage of the drive will damage it as I assume the Pi does not have an in-built controller to enable sleep mode on the HDD. Is there any way to do this. Also, I have been experiencing slow speeds with the Pi's NAS server and was wondering if there is any way to fix this as well. Thank You.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Harsheybar.

Congrats on the new drive.
Unfortunately it would be difficult to answer this question without knowing the which OS and version you are using with your Rpi (which Rpi as well). Perhaps those threads might prove useful in this case: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=6070 & http://superuser.com/questions/937480/does-the-raspberry-pi-2-put-usb-external-drives-to-sleep-when-not-in-use-for-a-w. I know they are quite old but you could still check out some of the suggestions.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how it goes and if anything works for you.
Boogieman_WD