Physical switch for spinning down HDDs

[Echo]

Anyone here ever attempted such a thing?

Unfortunately all my data drives feed into an 8-port SATA controller which doesn't communicate with Windows' spin-down after x minutes feature.

Would like the ability to leave system on (SSD = boot) but shut down the 8 HDDs (sometimes days go by without any accesses) via one of my fan controller rocker switches, but guessing it would be daisy-chain molex hell.

Get rather a lot of idle hum from them, plus the wattage/heat reduction would be a bonus.

Barmy plan?

 

[PhillyDee]

Yes, as the controller would assume the drive has died.
Plus, you would need to safely remove it.

Has the controller not got an option to spin them down?

 

[Echo]

'Fraid not, it has a web interface with some basic stuff (write caching, NCQ, SMART status) but no idle spindown.

The data loss due to write caching is in the back of my mind too, but I could always power on main rig while switch is in off-state - and just never cut their power while in Windows. Controller supports hot plug, can even hotmount its RAID0 array (just have to online it in drive management).

 

[Kotu]

if you disable the drives cache it should be fine, those esata things just feed from the connectors inside the pc and those work fine with drives just being plugged in and unplugged.