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				To Leave On or Off?
			 
 I have asked similiar questions like this before: Do you leave your computer on?  Do you leave your speakers on?  Now I am asking one more: Do you leave your external drive on?  I have a Maxtor 160GB external drive that I use "In Case Shit........"  Thus far I have only plugged in the power as I wanted to back things up.  When I told a friend about this he said I might damage the harddrive (long-term; plugging and unplugging it) and that most external drives are designed to run 24/7.   Is he right?  If I leave the drive on for extended periods it does get hot (I have it standing on its side in a base that Maxtor provided [is it better for it to be on its side or laying flat I guess is another question]) and it makes a low hum which I find annoying.  But I don't want to lose all the information stored on computer so if I have to put with hum, so be it.  So, do I leave this drive on continously or not?  Much obliged for any hints, tips, suggestions, etc.  Thanks 
				__________________"But a work of art is a conscious human effort that has to do with communication.  It is that or its nothing.  When an accident is applauded as a work of art, when a cult grows up around the deliciousness of inadvertent beauty, we are in the presence of the greatest decadence the West has known in its history."
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