Independent HD standby/spindown?

[UltimateAtrophy]

I just received my NAS and have been pouring all my files onto it. It's a 4TB x 3 Raid 5 + 1 independent disk. I've been manually/slowly trying back up the data to the Amazon Cloud Drive and have been half successful with RTRR and the Beta Hybrid Backup service.

Since I know it's going to take a long time (2-3 months probably) I was wondering if there was a way to have keep my independent disk (which will be a series of random HD"s I have) do the grunt of the work. Can the main raid volume be in standby while my single disk slowly pushes data to the cloud? Ultimately, I want to minimize HD wear without requiring an additional computer do the work.

Cheers!

[dolbyman]

no it's all or nothing (no individual drives go into standby)

so better to join that one disk into the RAID 5 for more space

and don't worry about the harddrives fading, if you bought drives that are made for NAS use, they are designed for 24/7 operation

[UltimateAtrophy]

Thanks for the reply! I originally bought the 3 NAS HD"s but I have some backup drives that I figure I would throw in to back up via the sata connection. I suppose I could throw a 4th NAS HD in there and use the usb connection to connect all the additional hd's I have.

[dolbyman]

don't use internal bays for swapping drives, use external usb drives or a dock