Any program to shut off HD's?

[V00D00]

I have a lot of them and it would be cool if I could turn a few off when I wasn't using them to cut down on the noise.

Is there a program like this?

 

[CheesePoofs]

Windows has one built in. Just go to control panel => Power options. You can set how long you want it to wait before shutting off your Hard drives in there.

 

[canadageek]

could you put a toggle on the power lead?

 

[V00D00]

I defineatly don't want to just cut the power. Who knows if it's currently reading/writing, and that could just mess the drive up.

I know there are power saving options, but that turns them all off. I want to be able to select which ones to turn off.

 

[cy7878]

why don't you just use Windows Power feature?? It actually will shut the drive(s) not in use independently drom other drives.

 

[OverVolt]

Originally posted by: cy7878
why don't you just use Windows Power feature?? It actually will shut the drive(s) not in use independently drom other drives.

ding ding ding.

when i play a game or something from my raptor, my 80gigger shuts itself off.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: OverVolt

Originally posted by: cy7878
why don't you just use Windows Power feature?? It actually will shut the drive(s) not in use independently drom other drives.

ding ding ding.

when i play a game or something from my raptor, my 80gigger shuts itself off.

really?

ive had windows power feature set for ages to shut my drives off after 1 hour of doing nothing, i left my computer on all night only to wake with the HDD still on

 

[sniperruff]

external enclosure/adapter sounds good.

 

[V00D00]

Enclosure(s) for my 4 internal hard drives? wtf you talkin about willis?

Even if windows can do it, is there a program I can use to just turn them off 1 by 1 whenever I want?

 

[Baked]

Why don't you think about getting a mobile rack and 3 extra trays, put the HDs in to trays and put them into the mobile rack only when you need to access the HDs?

 

[piroroadkill]

I'd be interested in such a tool also, because the windows power feature never works on my server, it always seems to reset to Never, with regards to shutting down the HDDs.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Baked
Why don't you think about getting a mobile rack and 3 extra trays, put the HDs in to trays and put them into the mobile rack only when you need to access the HDs?

Bingo! I have done this for years. I have had 2 or 3 drives in each tower, all in mobile racks. They have key switches and can be turned on and off at will. But - remember - IDE drives are NOT hot pluggable - so - only make those switches when overall system power is off, or else you could end up corrupting data.

There is also a keylock switch called "Nicklock." Use to be at NewEgg - that allows switching power between drives.

I currently use a button selector by RomTec - but they have gone out of business. They work very well.

 

[Baked]

Kingwin's KF-91 SATA mobile rack + SATA HDs would be real nice. Hot swappable and no cable clutter. I'll got this route when extra tray for the KF-91 becomes available.

 

[V00D00]

I Use the HD's quite often so I want to be able to access them. Just want to turn them off for a few hours at a time while i watch a movie or something off my computer. Don't have deskspace for a rack. Defineatly don't want something like that either.

 

[Bozo Galora]

http://www.webattack.com/freew...ystem/fwshutdown.shtml
http://www.shareup.com/12Ghost...own-download-1810.html

 

[V00D00]

Those are for shutting down the computer. Not using the ACPI windows features to turn off just a hard drive.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer

Originally posted by: OverVolt

Originally posted by: cy7878
why don't you just use Windows Power feature?? It actually will shut the drive(s) not in use independently drom other drives.

ding ding ding.

when i play a game or something from my raptor, my 80gigger shuts itself off.

really?

ive had windows power feature set for ages to shut my drives off after 1 hour of doing nothing, i left my computer on all night only to wake with the HDD still on

Same here - both of my PC's are set to turn their drives off after a set time. When I had an IBM drive, it would quick bonk off after an hour, but then start spinning right away. Now that it is a Western Digital drive, it just never stops. I just gave up on the Windows Power management for anything except my monitor.
On my laptop, it screws up too - if it enters Standby mode on its own, it never comes out of it. If I tell it to Stand By, through the Start Menu, it works fine. The power management can't seem to get things right.

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
http://www.webattack.com/freew...ystem/fwshutdown.shtml
http://www.shareup.com/12Ghost...own-download-1810.html

One of those says it can shut down the computer at preset times? Heck, Windows Task Scheduler can do that, along with shutdown -s.

 

[cy7878]

1 hour for turning the drive probably is too long. The OS or hidden software "do" stuff all the time which will turn on HD. Try to set the interval shorter like 5 minutes.

 

[aznbomber]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer

Originally posted by: OverVolt

Originally posted by: cy7878
why don't you just use Windows Power feature?? It actually will shut the drive(s) not in use independently drom other drives.

ding ding ding.

when i play a game or something from my raptor, my 80gigger shuts itself off.

really?

ive had windows power feature set for ages to shut my drives off after 1 hour of doing nothing, i left my computer on all night only to wake with the HDD still on

Same here - both of my PC's are set to turn their drives off after a set time. When I had an IBM drive, it would quick bonk off after an hour, but then start spinning right away. Now that it is a Western Digital drive, it just never stops. I just gave up on the Windows Power management for anything except my monitor.
On my laptop, it screws up too - if it enters Standby mode on its own, it never comes out of it. If I tell it to Stand By, through the Start Menu, it works fine. The power management can't seem to get things right.

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
http://www.webattack.com/freew...ystem/fwshutdown.shtml
http://www.shareup.com/12Ghost...own-download-1810.html

One of those says it can shut down the computer at preset times? Heck, Windows Task Scheduler can do that, along with shutdown -s.

Just to let you know, for most laptops if the power mangement doesn't work it could also be the fault of the notebook itself. I have seen laptops that won't wake up from standby when you close the lid, but after flashing the bios it works.

 

[V00D00]

I doubt that anything will access the hard drive that has nothing but files on it. I have a whole separate drive with the windows and programs and stuff.

I turned off indexing and anything else that does stuff in the background, so there's no reason for windows to be accessing the drive.