--- title: I reduced my NAS power bill by letting drives sleep, and... description: A home server owner cut power consumption by configuring TrueNAS's HDD Standby setting to spin down idle hard drives after an hour, accessible via Storage >... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-reduced-my-nas-power-bill-by-letting-drives-sleep-and-the-setup-took-one-dropdown-menu-yy2mrhoud twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I reduced my NAS power bill by letting drives sleep, and the setup took one dropdown menu | daily.dev og:description: A home server owner cut power consumption by configuring TrueNAS's HDD Standby setting to spin down idle hard drives after an hour, accessible via Storage >... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-reduced-my-nas-power-bill-by-letting-drives-sleep-and-the-setup-took-one-dropdown-menu-yy2mrhoud og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/YY2MrHOUd.png og:image:alt: I reduced my NAS power bill by letting drives sleep, and the setup took one dropdown menu og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I reduced my NAS power bill by letting drives sleep, and the setup took one dropdown menu **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A home server owner cut power consumption by configuring TrueNAS's HDD Standby setting to spin down idle hard drives after an hour, accessible via Storage > Disks > Edit on each drive. The main challenge was preventing background jobs like snapshot tasks, pool scrubs, rsync, and Plex library scans from repeatedly waking the drives, which was solved by clustering those tasks together. The boot pool should be an SSD since the OS constantly nudges it awake. While frequent start-stop cycles do add mechanical wear, the author argues it's manageable if drives spin up only once or twice a day, offering a worthwhile trade-off of a brief spin-up delay for real power savings. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I set up HDD standby in TrueNAS to save power? Go to Storage, then Disks, expand the row for the disk, click Edit, and choose a value from the HDD Standby dropdown, such as one hour. Repeat this for every disk in the pool since disks default to staying on continuously. An SSD boot pool is recommended because the OS constantly accesses it, preventing it from ever spinning down. _daily.dev surfaces practical NAS tuning tips like this for developers running self-hosted storage._ ### Why do my NAS hard drives keep waking up even after enabling standby mode? Background tasks such as snapshot jobs, pool scrubs, rsync transfers, and Plex library scans can repeatedly wake spun-down drives throughout the day. Clustering these scheduled jobs together and moving some away from the storage pool reduces unnecessary spin-up cycles, ideally limiting drives to spinning up only once or twice per day. _Anyone tuning self-hosted storage schedules can find similar home lab troubleshooting on daily.dev._ ### Does spinning hard drives down and up frequently damage them faster than leaving them running constantly? Yes, start-stop cycles and head load/unload events are mechanical operations with a finite lifespan, so frequent spin downs do add wear compared to drives left running continuously, which is standard practice in enterprise environments. However, this is only a real concern if standby is implemented poorly; limiting spin-ups to once or twice a day makes the trade-off reasonable for home use. _daily.dev helps home lab builders weigh hardware longevity trade-offs like drive standby settings._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I learned the hard way to never spin down your NAS hard drives](https://daily.dev/posts/i-learned-the-hard-way-to-never-spin-down-your-nas-hard-drives-xdytqhtkr) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I disabled NAS drive sleep mode after watching the load-unload cycles destroy a $200 drive](https://daily.dev/posts/i-disabled-nas-drive-sleep-mode-after-watching-the-load-unload-cycles-destroy-a-200-drive-kmbcm9p8h) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Your hard drive never stops spinning, and this buried Windows setting is the reason why](https://daily.dev/posts/your-hard-drive-never-stops-spinning-and-this-buried-windows-setting-is-the-reason-why-a3golmay9) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Don't throw away your old PC—it makes a better NAS than anything you can buy](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-throw-away-your-old-pc-it-makes-a-better-nas-than-anything-you-can-buy-oub5twucf) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#storage](https://daily.dev/tags/storage), [#self-hosting](https://daily.dev/tags/self-hosting), [#homelab](https://daily.dev/tags/homelab), [#truenas](https://daily.dev/tags/truenas) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-reduced-my-nas-power-bill-by-letting-drives-sleep-and-the-setup-took-one-dropdown-menu-yy2mrhoud) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I reduced my NAS power bill by letting drives sleep, and the setup took one dropdown menu","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-reduced-my-nas-power-bill-by-letting-drives-sleep-and-the-setup-took-one-dropdown-menu-yy2mrhoud","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-reduced-my-nas-power-bill-by-letting-drives-sleep-and-the-setup-took-one-dropdown-menu-yy2mrhoud"},"datePublished":"2026-08-20T12:00:49.155Z","dateModified":"2026-08-20T12:01:15.975Z","description":"A home server owner cut power consumption by configuring TrueNAS's HDD Standby setting to spin down idle hard drives after an hour, accessible via Storage >...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/4a0ea38329d9bb97a17d7cba3156427e?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/4a0ea38329d9bb97a17d7cba3156427e?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-reduced-my-nas-power-bill-by-letting-drives-sleep-and-the-setup-took-one-dropdown-menu-yy2mrhoud","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"storage,self-hosting,homelab,truenas","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I reduced my NAS power bill by letting drives sleep, and the setup took one dropdown menu"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-reduced-my-nas-power-bill-by-letting-drives-sleep-and-the-setup-took-one-dropdown-menu-yy2mrhoud#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I set up HDD standby in TrueNAS to save power?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Go to Storage, then Disks, expand the row for the disk, click Edit, and choose a value from the HDD Standby dropdown, such as one hour. Repeat this for every disk in the pool since disks default to staying on continuously. An SSD boot pool is recommended because the OS constantly accesses it, preventing it from ever spinning down. daily.dev surfaces practical NAS tuning tips like this for developers running self-hosted storage."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why do my NAS hard drives keep waking up even after enabling standby mode?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Background tasks such as snapshot jobs, pool scrubs, rsync transfers, and Plex library scans can repeatedly wake spun-down drives throughout the day. Clustering these scheduled jobs together and moving some away from the storage pool reduces unnecessary spin-up cycles, ideally limiting drives to spinning up only once or twice per day. Anyone tuning self-hosted storage schedules can find similar home lab troubleshooting on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Does spinning hard drives down and up frequently damage them faster than leaving them running constantly?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, start-stop cycles and head load/unload events are mechanical operations with a finite lifespan, so frequent spin downs do add wear compared to drives left running continuously, which is standard practice in enterprise environments. However, this is only a real concern if standby is implemented poorly; limiting spin-ups to once or twice a day makes the trade-off reasonable for home use. daily.dev helps home lab builders weigh hardware longevity trade-offs like drive standby settings."}}]} ```