I host an FTP server on my computer at home. It doesn't get accessed very often, but it does happen. I was wondering if it is ok to have the server's hard drive turn off when not in use, and then it can turn back on when it needs to do something?
The specs of the server:
Sorry if my English is poor, it is not my main language.
Thank you
It's ok, the OS will not give an error to applications requesting access to the disk while it's off, it will simply hold the request until the drive is available. These delays are normal and well-behaving applications should expect them.
Of course, spinning up a disk drive can take longer than usual, but consider that the FTP protocol used to work just fine accross the globe when <2kB/s modems and huge ping times were common.
Worst case, if the delay is so long that it times out the connection, I expect this would occur during on the LS command to list files and not upon logging in. So a FTP client might attempt to automatically retry the command, or the user can do it.
