firewire drive need to be unpluged?

[bdiphoto]

  i just bought a 4 drive JBOD box for my back up drives. The instuctions say that the unit must be unpluged from the computer if a start/restart needs to be done.
 These drives will be atached my working computer. so I will need to unplug and replug these drives each day?  I want fast access to the files. so I don't want to run it over my network.
Can I just turn the power off on the JBOD.  and restart th computer?
 

[peterkrogh]

I have found powering down the JBOD is enough.

For the propellorheads in the audience...

The thing that REALLY needs to power down is the Firewire Bridge board. (this is the little board with a firewire port and an ATA connector inside the case). On my large JBOD I put a power switch on the one bridge board, (that serves two bays) so that I can cycle power on those two bays without unmounting the other drives and turning off the JBOD.

These bays are not in the firewire chain that the other ones are in.
Peter

[Rick McCleary]

What's a good rule-of-thumb for how to manage the drives in a JBOD box?  Should the drives be spun down daily, or is it OK to let them spin?  How long is too long to let them spin?  The box I have is well-ventilated, so heat is not a problem.  But I'm concerned about mechanical wear on the bearings.

[peterkrogh]

Uncle Steve had a long talk with Rick at Mac Gurus and he said to just let them spin.
That's good enough for me, at least until I hear otherwise;-)
Peter