Windows power saving - turning off hard disks, good idea for a remote home server?

[DJMK4]

I want to try and turn on a few power saving features however im not sure if turning off hard disks to a server you are accessing remotely is a good idea? will this stop me having remote access to the server?

Also, is there anyway to stop this from happening if there is server activity (say like I am downloading a large file) can I stop it from turning off the hard disk unless the server is idle?

 

[NathanE]

It only turns off the disks when they're idle anyway. You can customise the number of minutes they must be idle.

Whenever the slightest I/O operation occurs that requires some physical I/O to occur then the disk will be spun up and won't spin down again until it is idle for the defined number of minutes.

Won't affect remote access.
Will save power.
Will shorten life span of hard disk.

Note: The OS drive is generally always active and will often never spin down as a result. If you "strip out" an Windows install enough and put in enough RAM you might be able to get the OS drive to spin down.

 

[cokecan]

It only turns off the disks when they're idle anyway. You can customise the number of minutes they must be idle.

Whenever the slightest I/O operation occurs that requires some physical I/O to occur then the disk will be spun up and won't spin down again until it is idle for the defined number of minutes.

Won't affect remote access.
Will save power.
Will shorten life span of hard disk.

Note: The OS drive is generally always active and will often never spin down as a result. If you "strip out" an Windows install enough and put in enough RAM you might be able to get the OS drive to spin down.

Any idea's what kind of life span will be cut from the disks when they're set to turn of when idle? or is it a case of "expect the life span to be reduced by a random amount with the increased wear and tear of spinning down and back up"

 

[DJMK4]

Yeah I read up some of the controversial comments about using this feature and the life of a disk.

I may just not bother

Thanks though