How to get External Hard drive to spin down?

[imported_jed]

I have two Maxtor 300gb drives in generic external cases connected via USB 2. These drives are used for regular nightly backups, but not accessed much during the day. The problem is, they are spinning all the time. This is a problem both because they are very noisy, and I assume it will cut down at least somewhat on their lifespan. Is there a way to get these things to go to sleep like an internal drive, and then wake up when the OS tells them to? I have a small LaCie drive for my laptop that does this just fine. Thanks so much for any help!

 

[corkyg]

Why not just unplug 'em during the day?

 

[imported_jed]

Well they do have a power switch. These drives, are however, on a computer at work. I don't want to have to remember to turn them on every night before I leave, plus the fact that I am out of the office, often for weeks at a time, and I don't want to have someone else have to remember to do it. I just want them to spin down when not accessed for more than 10 minutes, and turn back on if the computer needs access to them. Simple, right??

 

[corkyg]

OK - to do what you want requires a motherboard that handles that with the suspend or hibernate function as in some laptops.

The OS power management system can do it, but for ALL HDDs at once.

Since most external hard drives require a separate power connection, why not look at this:

Timer Strip

Connect the external drive to this power strip and let the timer turn them on at night for back up and off in the AM.

 

[imported_jed]

Well I've gone with the timer switch option for now. This computer has an Asus K8V SE board in it. Does anyone know if this board supports the suspend of USB disks?