Can you put USB3 connected drives to sleep?

Hi, I have attached an external HDD in a caddy via USB3 to my MyCloud NAS. I know the NAS will “sleep” when not in use. Is there any way to set the externally attached USB3 drive to sleep when not being accessed ? I don’t want it powered up all the time. Would a proper portable WD USB3 drive be better then a HDD in a generic caddy ?

Please advise so I can save power and not have the drive spinning up all the time. Thanks in advance.

Does not the USB hard drive itself power down when inactive?

Is the Sleep option within the Dashboard > Settings set to On?

If one does a subforum search for “usb sleep” they’ll see this question has been asked and discussed in the past. Here are just a few threads.

https://community.wd.com/t/sleep-external-hard-drive/96498

https://community.wd.com/t/does-drive-sleep-functioncontrol-atttached-usb-drive-as-well/94104

https://community.wd.com/t/let-the-usb-disk-sleep/92492

https://community.wd.com/t/get-attached-usb-disk-to-go-to-sleep/91538

No bare drive I know of has this feature. It is a feature of drives that come in their own enclosures – and not all these drives come with this feature. Drives with this feature often have software to control the sleep time, too. You need to read the drive’s specs or manual for the full story.