[9fans] Those power-saving USB drives and Plan 9

[9fans] Those power-saving USB drives and Plan 9

[Jack Norton]

Greetings,

I'm shopping around for a 2.5" usb enclosure/drive solution for some
cool and quiet backup.  I'm reading that lots of these enclosures spin
down the disks when they feel like it.
Now, this might be more broad than a Plan 9 question, but I'd simply
like to know if this is a safe 'feature' to use?  Both from a
reliability standpoint (why not just keep it warm and spinning?) and
from a Plan 9 compatibility standpoint (will that long pause before
spinning up give me grief?).
I've never used this kind of thing before so pardon the na�vety.

Also, I'll mention that I am not interested in "cheating" this feature
by touching a file every 30 seconds or some other hack.  I've not
purchased yet, so I've an opportunity to do it right from the start.

-Jack