Drive spin-down - how to apply to one drive not another?

[KingFatty]

Hello,

Can drive spin-down be selectively applied to one drive and not another, in systems with multiple drives?

I have a system with an SSD and a HDD, and it seems the setting was all-or-nothing, so I don't see a way to turn it off completely for my SSD but leave it enabled for my HDD.

As an aside, the reason I looked into this is because I read that SSDs don't really benefit from being "spun down" but may benefit from being left on all the time because it gives TRIM a chance to work. But does TRIM really need that? Couldn't I just set the spin down to something like 1 hour and that would be enough time for TRIM to work?

I want to allow the HDD to spin down, so I figure 1 hour is a good compromise if I must apply it to both drives, is that enough for TRIM? The drive is a Plextor 128 M3.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Realistically, why bother to spin down? The power saving is under 10W per drive, but the additional wear and tear on the drive is significant.

 

[KingFatty]

Eh good point, I hate that windows 7 makes me wait for the HDD to spin back up when I shut down the computer, although by that time I'm already walking out of the room.

But it sounds like you can't apply different spin-down criteria to different drives, is that true?

 

[corkyg]

As Larry says, there's not much point to it, but, yes, individual drives can be turned off. A good way is to install hardware switches, or use mobile racks. That is better than the Device Manager/Disable routine.

Hardware controls are simpler with SATA drives because they can be hot plugged and unplugged. PATA drives have to be turned off and on when powered down.

 

[groberts101]

Windows power mgmt schemes are system wide as you've already learned.

TRIM will not be affected by spindowns(since the commands are often instant) or lack of and you're probably talking about Garbage collection anyways. Garbage collection will function will work regardless of these settings if power remains to the drive. And it obviously will unless you sleep/hibernate the drive and let it power down.

Most HDD these days will have internal firmware algorithms present that control the drive much moreso than Windows would. This is why "green drives" are so quick to spindown and save power regardless of W7's power scheme.

Not really worth monkeying around with these settings in the long run, IMO.

 

[Nothinman]

Eh good point, I hate that windows 7 makes me wait for the HDD to spin back up when I shut down the computer, although by that time I'm already walking out of the room.

But it sounds like you can't apply different spin-down criteria to different drives, is that true?

With normal Windows PM it's all or nothing, but I'm not sure if you could use hdparm to set the drive firmware's spindown time like you can on Linux.

 

[corkyg]

Here is a simple 2 drive switch that I am currently using. With SATA drives, you can hot switch easily.