Can you turn off a secondary SATA internal hard drive in Windows 7?

[hitman098]

I want to turn off my second hdd off/on without going to bios and disabling the drive.

 

[BoomerD]

Not overly familiar with Windows 7, but can't you just disable it in Device Manager?

 

[techs]

When you say disable do you mean just hide the drive in Windows?

 

[hitman098]

When you say disable do you mean just hide the drive in Windows?

NO i mean hard-drive has to stop consuming power and stop spinning.

 

[jacktesterson]

Not That I know of. May I ask why?

 

[IGemini]

Even disabling the SATA port in BIOS won't make it stop consuming power. If you want that you'll have to physically unplug the power connector. If you want on/off ability, get an enclosure.

 

[hitman098]

Not That I know of. May I ask why?

To extend hdd life. I only use secondary drive to back my primary drive like once a month. there is no reason why it should be on all the time.

 

[BoomerD]

To extend hdd life. I only use secondary drive to back my primary drive like once a month. there is no reason why it should be on all the time.

Then, unplug it until you plan a back up...then connect it, run your back up...and unplug it again.
That's really the only way...and the easiest way is if you have it in an external enclosure.

 

[corkyg]

Make life easy. Put it in a mobile rack - SATA - and simply turn it on and off with the key switch. I use two racks and rotate the drives.

 

[techs]

Make life easy. Put it in a mobile rack - SATA - and simply turn it on and off with the key switch. I use two racks and rotate the drives.

this.
I do it exactly the same way.

 

[Sephire]

Those mobile racks are loud as hell. Stay far away.

Get this instead. Fanless

 

[corkyg]

EZ-Swaps are not loud. I have 3 and they are not audible. At least they are in stock and SATA vice eSATA.

 

[pete1229]

The easiest solution would be to get an external hard drive encloser, remove the second hdd from your chasis, install it in the encloser which you can turn off and on anytime you need it. I have this set up on my Windows 7 system and its very easy. You can get an enclosure that supports both sata or usb connections for about 30 bucks.