Need help getting the right harddrive.

I think the Western Digital My Book Essential series will go into standby if you put your computer on standby. And it’s USB 2.0.

although… USB 3.0 is out now. So if you plan on upgrading soon to a system that has that interface, I’d wait a bit.

It may be more of a function of your computer and OS than of the drives. My Macs put all my LaCie, OWC, and Drobo hard drives to sleep when it sleeps. It also spins them down to save energy after a set amount of time.

@simpleD I have a Mac, but it doesn’t seem to put the iomega to sleep when it sleeps. Do you know of any settings that may need to be switched?

Check Energy Saver System Preference. Enable “Put the hard disks to sleep when possible.”