IDE RAID and HDD Power Down?

[Zach]

Is it not possible? Anyone using an IDE RAID controller (HPT expecailly) able to get thier HD's (sinlge or in array) to spin down?

I was going to move all of my HDD's from my home file server to my living room system, but if I can't get the drives to spin down it's of no use. I only use my public folder once every week or two..

 

[MichaelD]

I'm not sure if I understand the question fully. Do you want the HD's to spin-down after a certain period of inactivity? To my knowledge the only way to set that is in the "power management" section of the "screen saver" control tab. There's options to shut off the monitor, spin-down the HD's and put the system on standby.

I have my screen save (blank) come on after 30 minutes (in case I go out and forget to shut screen off.) My HD's power down after 1 hour of inactivity and system standby after two hours. I set it to password-protect when coming out of standby. Just in case, you know. Hope this helps.

ps
I'm using IDE RAID 0 on the Highpoint controller of my Abit KT7R.

 

[Zach]

Which OS? Are you sure it's the disks on the HPT controller spinning down? As far as I can tell my HPT isn't letting the drives spin down in either Win98 or Win2K. I have a sinlge disk, and a stripe set on there. My onboard IDE disks will spin down though, so power management is sending the command.

 

[MichaelD]

I'm using Win98SE. Hmm. The only thing I know for sure is that when the PC comes out of sleep mode, I do hear "a hard drive or drives" spinning up.

I have not actually put my ear next to or my hand on my RAID array drives. I've only had the RAID up for a couple of days. So I guess I can't say that I am 101% sure that the RAID drives are going to sleep.

Good point, though. See, now you have me all paranoid! :shocked; I will check tonight for sure though. I'll just set them to sleep after 15 minutes and check.

 

[Zach]

I'm confused, I thought my drives weren't turning off.. but on a reboot I heard something spin up during the HPT's BIOS initialization. There's just the stripe set on there now though, I guess I'll let the drives spin down and manually pull the power on the stripe (I have no data on anything but my main drive).

 

[MichaelD]

Yanking out the power cable (even w/the drives not spinning) might not be such a good idea. You may damage your PS or your mobo that way. I wouldn't do it. I completely disconnect the power cord from the PS before adding/removing anything. Overkill, but the safest way. Good luck!

 

[Zach]

<< Yanking out the power cable (even w/the drives not spinning) might not be such a good idea. You may damage your PS or your mobo that way. I wouldn't do it. I completely disconnect the power cord from the PS before adding/removing anything. Overkill, but the safest way. Good luck! >>



Don't worry, don't lecture. I'll tell you to stop being so careful if you don't watch out. We've both been around.

 

[Zach]

Anyone?