SPCR

Anyone seen a solution that can power down a HD that isn't in use?

Power management will power down all drives if the system is idle, but what about just powering down a single backup drive that you only need once in a while?

Search.

So no then.

RedSnapper wrote:Anyone seen a solution that can power down a HD that isn't in use?

An inline power switch.

And the Search page.

This has been discussed many, many times. I don't think it has really had a good solution presented, especially on the Windows side. If anything, I seem to remember that Linux might handle this a bit better. But that's my shoddy memory, and I wouldn't trust it.

Use an external USB box....... The only downside is that when it is on, they tend to be a bit louder than when mounted in a case.

There is a number of ways, at least for linux, I don;t know anything about windows. I had a soyo motherboard that would do it from the bios. There is a number of discussions about doing this in linux, search for the hdparm use. You can just turn it off by hand anytime you want using this.

I also saw a discussion once about setting the filesystem update param such that the system would use the filesystem cache from memory for 30mins or so at a time, so the hard drive would spin up for a sync only once every 30 mins or so, if needed.

Bummer. I keep seeing these threads and keep hoping someone finally has a solution for Windows. Oh well.

I found out how to turn off the monitor through software a while back. Was hoping something similar could be done for HDD, but apparently not.

Incidentally, I came across a post somewhere else that one Oxford 911 chip can support two IDE drive in master / slave configuration through a firmware update. Something worth considering if you're contemplating building your own external enclosure.

Thanks guys, I did actually find a previous post after a bit of creative word searching. Shame nobody has come up with a bit of software for doing this. would be dead handy.

Even if someone wrote a piece of software that turned of the HD, that wouldn't solve this. You can already tell Windows to stop the HD after 3 minutes. The problem is the stupid OS accesses the HD every 10 to 15 minutes so it just wakes it up again. The stupidity is that when windows knows it is installed on a laptop, then it can keep the HD powered down for a far longer time.

The trick to keeping a HDD spun down is killing off all the useless services that XP defaults to running. BlackViper has one of the best guides I've seen.

I do this in windows XP and have posted details as to how. A quick summary is to use of a SATA drive with a controller that supports hot swap/hot plug. The Silicon Image 311x controllers work, tho these are not current state of the art. The onboard Intel 865 chipset controller does not support hot plugging. Use a mobile rack or install a DPST switch into the 12v and 5v power into the HDD. Prior to switching power off, uninstall the drive in device manager. To use the drive, simply switch it on, Windows will autodetect it and install it.

bomba-
Thanks again, you posted this in a different thread about the topic a few weeks ago!

Do you know if there is a script that can shut down the hard drive... ideally something that could have a shortcut? While going through device manager is possible, I'm pretty lazy and would prefer a more elegant solution. Any ideas?

mpjohnst wrote:bomba-
Thanks again, you posted this in a different thread about the topic a few weeks ago!

Do you know if there is a script that can shut down the hard drive... ideally something that could have a shortcut? While going through device manager is possible, I'm pretty lazy and would prefer a more elegant solution. Any ideas?

Not sure about a script, but I put a shortcut to device manager on my desktop, for quick access. In WindowsXP, the path is
C:\WINDOWS\system32\devmgmt.msc

What do you think about this [winXP with 1GB ram]:
- switching off swap file?
- disable file indexing service
- configure trash can (independent trash cans for every disk)
- Disable Paging Executive [registry tweak]
- set large system cache [registry tweak]
- Increase File System Caching Memory [registry tweak]

---
i should decrease xp access to disk, don't you think?
I can't check this on my own, because i have only 256MB
but i'm planning 1 GB

VERiON wrote:What do you think about this [winXP with 1GB ram]:
- switching off swap file?
- disable file indexing service
- configure trash can (independent trash cans for every disk)
- Disable Paging Executive [registry tweak]
- set large system cache [registry tweak]
- Increase File System Caching Memory [registry tweak]

---
i should decrease xp access to disk, don't you think?
I can't check this on my own, because i have only 256MB
but i'm planning 1 GB

I'd also like to know how to keep windows from accessing the disks. It bugs me soo much when I'm trying to get some sleep and the disks keep spinning up and down every 15 minutes although the computer is not running anything at all. And if I do something on the computer it spins bothe my drives up even though what I do only requires acess to the system drive.

disable "one trash can for all disk" or "one settings on all disk"
I don't know how it is in english, because i have international version. You can find it in trash can properities.

It stops SECOND (not system) hdd spin up when you delete files/empty trash bin. And I'm talking about second HDD not the second partition on first (only) HDD.