You should look at power settings. HDDs can power down when not being read from or written to. It extends the time you wait when you need the data on them but can save on their lifetime / electric / heat.
Depends on how frequently you’re accessing the data. If it’s infrequently used, then spin up/down can be beneficial. But yes, you raise a good point. Thank you. :)
what hardware should I buy for storage purposes? what brands?
I own several external 2.5’’ HDDs on the 1 TB range where I save my data. Samsung has worked well for me, but now I need more space....