I recently acquired a new old stock HP LTO5 drive and its 1U rack. I decided to slot an Blu-Ray drive in the second slot next to it. I'm debating how I best want to connect it, but am currently thinking to use a USB to Sata for the drive and pass a connector through the back, and power the drive over the existing PSU in the rack.
This would mean that to use the disc drive I would have to power on the tape drive as well. The tape drive would be sitting there idle, but turned on. My question is, does this "on time" degrade the life span of the tape drive in any significant way?
If so I can power the unit using an adapter that has a barrel jack and pass that through the rear (I have ideas), but would love to consolidate as much as possible for cleanliness.