HDD Power Management Query

Steves1982 · 20 Apr 2011 at 14:58

I posted this in the HDD forum but didn't get a response so thought I would try here:

I have 4 HDDS in my system, 1 SSD as a system drive, 1 for programs, 1 for media and 1 which backs up my system drive and important files every week.

Initially I had them set to shut down when not in use but found this really annoying as I often access the programs drive and had to wait a few seconds for anything to run. It seemed a bit pointless running an SSD if I have to wait every time I open a program if the drive has been idle for 10 mins.

Is there anyway to separately set my media and backup drives to shut down without shutting down my drive containing all my programs and games? I can't find a way to do this in Windows. I don't really want my backup and media drives to constantly be powered on and I assume I will save power and extend the life of the drives if they are shut down when not in use.

Thanks

Tealc · 20 Apr 2011 at 15:27

You can spin down drives with HDDScan but is a manual process. You can also use HDDScan to do it via batch file but as for getting Windows to do it I have no idea.

Steves1982 · 20 Apr 2011 at 16:11

Thanks. I'll have a look in to that.

It does look as though it isn't possible through Windows. Would have thought it would have been something they considered though. A lot of people have a lot of hard drives and I don't see the point in continuously having them all powered up when some only get used once a week/month.

Tealc · 20 Apr 2011 at 17:04

Some people warn about spinning down hard drives whilly nilly though as it does introduce wear. Surely it's better to have a drive stop for 3 hours than continually run for 3 hours though. Maybe if the drive is starting and stopping every 5 minutes though.

I did actually get it to work by the way. It was from a post on spcr. The script actually removes the drive from the list of attached drives too so it won't be spun up for some stupid windows file cacheing thingymajig.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=56495

Steves1982 · 20 Apr 2011 at 17:13

Thanks, I will give that a go.

My backup drive is only used once a week for 30 mins and the media drive 1-2 times a week for an hour or so too. As it's a backup drive I would prefer it to be powered down as much as possible just in case as it must extend it's life powered for 30 mins a week compared to 40-50 hours a week as it is now.