External Hard-Drive with Time Machine

Hi guys,

Basically, I have an 80GB external Hard Drive connected to my Macbook. I'm running OSX 10.5 so Time Machine is installed. I'm just wondering would it be best to switch off my External HD, so it doesn't waste power, or should I leave it on, so it can continuously beck up my internal HD?

Thanks.

From what I know (which isn't much)... time machine backups your selected choices EVERY hour. It's ok to let the external hard drive on. I don't know what model/make you have but mine goes into a "sleep" mode when it's not in use. If it were me; I would leave it on (it kind of defeats the purpose of time machine. But, remember, I'm no expert!

If your external HD was bought in the past 3 years or so, and you have it directly connected to the computer via USB/Firewire or through a hub, the drive will power itself down when the computer's not using it.

If you are concerned with leaving the drive on, consider turning OFF Time Machine and download Carbon Copy Cloner or something like it and make a weekly backup of your entire drive using that.

Either way, PLEASE backup somehow. Time Machine just makes it pretty effortless for those folk who normally have a problem backing up their data. (I have my Time Machine drive and two redundant bootable backups, personally).