Will preventing sleep shorten my ext hard drive's life?

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for macOS
1

I use my My Book Studio Edition II as a music server. When it’s been idle it’s a bit slow to respond when I go to play a track. I unchecked “Put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible” in system prefs Energy Saver and now response is instantaneous, even after the drive’s been idle all night.

Does this have any negative impact on the drive? Will it shorten its life span?

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In theory Yes, it will shorten its life span.

High temperature (heat) is the most enemy.

Unless you keep the drive in the cool air conditioning room, that would help keep it last long.

So keep it cool.

Suggestion:

You may turn it off at night time or over the weekend or when not in use for long period of time.

To save energy and generating heat.

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