USB Hardrive

[warajoker]

I have just purchased one of these and im going to use my usb powered external hardrive with it as it doesent have its own psu. how do I mount the external hardrive so that it works like a real hdd meaning it will switch of when I put my stb into standby . can I mount it as hdd or does it have to be mounted as usb

[freestyler]

I am not sure if you can mount it in a different way but in hard drive settings there is a standby setting which you can change from 4 hours to off so it never turns off.

If it actually powers it down or just stops it spinning I am unsure as if you have a timer set while the box is in standby it will have to power the hard drive on to record.

I have not tried a usb powered one for any length of time but it works fine. I am just wondering if it will put a strain on the box with it pulling power constantly. I am sure someone with more knowledge will come along shortly though.

[Rob van der Does]

The powermanagement of USB-drives is done by the chipset in the converter, not by the box.
Most modern USB-HDD's will go asleep after a (fixed) certain amount of time, and will wake up when being asked for data read/write.
Some HDD's however never go to sleep, and others will never wake up once asleep.

So: all depends on the drive in use. Unfortunately the info on this subject is nil to almost nil for most brands, so there's only one way to find out.

BTW: a bus-powered HDD is never a good idea. Of course you can try if it works; if not you could try using a powered HUB.

[warajoker]

Thank you....