[rtdunham]

I'm looking at getting a couple external firewire drives in the neighborhood of 80GB for backup purposes. they'd be left on nearly 24/7 in order to run automated overnight backups. A friend says I should perhaps limit my search to drives with fans in the enclosures to avoid overheating. But many of the regularlyl advertised drives (I like otherworldcomputing drives, for example) don't include fans or even extensive passive ventilation provisions. is that important, or will the drives merely "idle" and generate no heat until they're engaged in their brief nightly backup operation?

and if you feel a fan IS essential, is there a brand/model you'd recommend?

thanks
terry

[Immortal K-Mart Employee]

If the drive comes without a fan then it should work fine without it. You will find that the sound of a fan will drive you nuts after a while.

[Macola]

You should be fine without a fan, although the drives do put out some heat (like my OWC Mercury). The situation where you absolutely need a fan is when the enclosure contains the power supply (instead of an extrenal power brick). I use a MacAlly case and disabled the fan temporarily due to noise (it was defective and I replaced it later). The case got pretty hot without the fan.