So that I can play my music everywhere or turn off my PC when watching a TV Show. I am aiming to share my media to my chromecast and my smartphone. Therefore, with the following command the disk will stop spinning if it is idle for 3 minutes.I am currently experimenting to create a cheap Plex Media Server running on a Raspberry Pi 3! It is usually installed by default on most GNU/Linux distributions. The utility can adjust parameters such as disk cache, sleep mode, power control, acoustic management and DMA settings. Wikipedia: hdparm is a command line utility for GNU/Linux and Windows operating systems for viewing and adjusting hardware parameters of IDE and SATA1 disks.

There is a tool with which this can be achieved: hdparm. Personally, I prefer that if the disk is not being used, better stopped. Remember that at all times in this article I am referring to hard drives, whose components are mechanical, not a solid state drive (SSD). There are numerous articles that compare having a hard disk spinning uninterruptedly with turning it off and on every time we make use of it. This question does not have an easy yes or no answer. The big debate: the hard disk is spinning 24 hours a day even if I am not using it, can it break down or deteriorate its lifespan? 24/7 connected, to what extent is it advisable? In my case, since I already had an unpowered enclosure purchased before I had this problem, the only solution that worked for me was the second one.

Use a USB rack with external power supply -> Amazon link.

Use an enclosure that has an input for external power supply.

There are two solutions to this situation: If connecting the HDD to the Raspberry has not worked for you, it is probably because the HDD needs more power than the Raspberry can provide. Sudo mount -t exfat /dev/sda1 /media/mydisk

Raspberry pi 3 plex media server