Using BIOS to turn off 2nd hard disk

JME · 29 Sep 2011 at 16:54

I have an SSD as my main drive, and a large HD for storage.

I note that most of the time I am not using the HD, but it does slow the responsiveness of the system .

Has anyone discovered a way to turn off the second HD in BIOS so that it will not start up automatically?

Thanks for any suggestions.

John

Dr. John Evans

Mujja · 29 Sep 2011 at 17:02

How does it slow your system down?

I have Primary OS on SSD and 3 mechanical drives. In Power settings I've set disks to sleep after 10 mins and they stay down until I access something on them.

In Indexing options disable any locations on the storage drive.

JME · 30 Sep 2011 at 13:57

Thanks for your input. Indexing options have been disabled.

My second drive is a "green" 2 TB drive which periodically shuts down.

However, it seems to "awaken" whenever I start the machine, which delays startup.

I only noticed this after I installed an SSD in my laptop which has only one drive and always starts faster than the main computer, even though the motherboard and memory are much faster on the main computer.

It is a minor point but if possible I would like to increase the responsiveness on the main computer.

ukgeezer1 · 30 Sep 2011 at 14:15

do you have AHCI enabled in BIOS

Hagar · 30 Sep 2011 at 14:26

Route the power cable on the sata through a flick switch on the case. switch off for no power to drive or on to hot load it in windows.

Mujja · 30 Sep 2011 at 15:14

JME said:
However, it seems to "awaken" whenever I start the machine, which delays startup.

My other 3 drives are all 2TB Samsung F4s. They don't slow down the boot and Windows start.

In your BIOS make sure you've set the SSD drive as the first boot and disable all others or move lower down the order, i.e. Optical, USB HDD.