Manually turn off HDD

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Aside from plugging and unplugging the power-supply cable from the HDD, I am looking for other ideas or products to turn my HDDs on or off manually.

Reasons:
1. Reduce noise
2. Save electricity and reduce heat dissipation.

 

[greenhawk]

putting the drives into a external case/dock or even a NAS works well for me. Using sata port multipliers to keep the speed up and costs down.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

sata port multipliers

That sounds like something that would work; a SATA power/electrical multipliers... but I would need one that would connect to the SATA power port from the cage - if I could just use the one open cage on the AMS and run the power cord to the 2 drives I have and that are in front of some quiet fans, that would work. :hmm:

 

[alaricljs]

What OS? On linux I set a timeout and the drives spin down completely and stay that way unless they are accessed. There should be a way to do that in windows, but the problem is it's almost impossible to prevent windows from spinning them back up for no reason at all.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

but the problem is it's almost impossible to prevent windows from spinning them back up for no reason at all.

^that

and Windows 7 64

 

[alaricljs]

Hmmm... set the timeout and use Device Manager to disable the disk itself then go back in and enable it when you want the disk. At least on my Gigabyte GBB36X controller this can be done without a restart. The timeout should be set on the disk so it'll spin down after you disable it.

It's a pain but you may be able to script it with AHK or possibly command line stuff that I don't know about in Windows. Really depends on how much you want to do this whether it's worth it.

As with the linux method tho, the disk will spin back up on a reboot.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I think utilizing the power button on the AMS cage would be real simple; if only if there were a SATA power cord multiplier :hmm:

 

[alaricljs]

AMS cage? google isn't helping.

 

[Auric]

If content with internal drives and to minimize cost then switches could be added using power splitters so as to leave the existing plugs unmodified.

If sufficient bays are available, higher cost is acceptable, and trays likewise, then a hot-swap cage with individual power buttons can be used.

Alternatively there are trayless models but the drive must be physically ejected and if not removed the door remains at least partially ajar.

In any case, it is best to "safely remove" the drives via software first and indeed if also incorporating spin-down then depending upon your usage the above hardware may be unnecessary. Try the utility "HotSwap!" and see what happens.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

AMS cage? google isn't helping.

I tried too, but luckily i have a "wish list" on New Egg of things that I bought from them. AMS cage

 

[alaricljs]

I think utilizing the power button on the AMS cage would be real simple; if only if there were a SATA power cord multiplier :hmm:

Why do you think you'd need more sata power connections?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Why do you think you'd need more sata power connections?

The one bay on one of the cages is free. If I could just take out the cage 'tray' and insert a SATA power cable from that and run it to my 2 HDDs that I want to turn off when not needed, that would be sweet. If I could do this, I wouldn't care about cutting the noisy 80mm fan that is on the back of the AMS cage. Then I could just use the power button on that particular tray and turn them on or off whenever needed.

 

[alaricljs]

You mean this: http://cgi.ebay.com/2pcs-20cm-SATA-Power-T-Y-Splitter-Extension-Cable-/270681742550 ??

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

You mean this: http://cgi.ebay.com/2pcs-20cm-SATA-Power-T-Y-Splitter-Extension-Cable-/270681742550 ??

wth!?

That's fantastic!

Thanks

 

[alaricljs]

Glad you're happy. Wouldn't necessarily go with that seller/item as it's in HK and it's 2 to the package so you might find it cheaper as 1 or better shipping options elsewhere.

 

[WildW]

I asked this a little while back and somebody linked to a little program called HotSwap that sits in your taskbar, lets you individually power-down your hard disks.

http://mt-naka.com/hotswap/index_enu.htm

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I asked this a little while back and somebody linked to a little program called HotSwap that sits in your taskbar, lets you individually power-down your hard disks.

http://mt-naka.com/hotswap/index_enu.htm

How is it? I'm speculating that you use it.. no

 

[WildW]

It does exactly what it says. . .properly shuts down any drives you choose. Drives start up again on a reboot, or there's a "detect drives" option that spins up ALL drives again, I think. It's designed so that you can hot-swap drives in removable caddies.

Since I was only spinning-down one particularly annoying buzzing hard disk, it did the job nicely. When I wanted it back on again I only had one drive to spin up again, so it worked well. I can imagine if you had a few drives that you wanted to power down it could be a bit annoying - accessing one would mean powering up all of them and then turning off all but the one you wanted. Comes down to how often you want to use the drives in question.

The nice thing about it is it's price - i.e. free.

Edit: Original thread for reference http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2134055

 

[Voo]

There should be a way to do that in windows, but the problem is it's almost impossible to prevent windows from spinning them back up for no reason at all.

Huh? My secondary HDDs are perfectly fine powered down except when I access stuff on them. Granted if we're talking about the OS drive matters are different, but oh well.

 

[alaricljs]

Huh? My secondary HDDs are perfectly fine powered down except when I access stuff on them. Granted if we're talking about the OS drive matters are different, but oh well.

And if you go into 'My Computer'? Sometimes when I access a CD/DVD drive Windows will randomly poke every drive in the system. There's a few programs I use that will poke all the drives if you go into a file dialog...

Overall it's just very hard to get windows not to poke your drives needlessly.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

12" SATA 15 pin extension cable
AMS cage
Hot swappable card - don't ask about the onboard controller, it's the reason why i bought this card.

So basically, I figured this out - unplug the fan, which i just did on the one I already have, run the 12" cable out the back of the AMS cage to the 2 HDDs I have (with better cooling), then run the drives off the Hot swappable card. A little expensive but the peace n quiet is worth it to me.

 

[Old Hippie]

Something like this HD selector switch is probably what you want.

 

[Voo]

And if you go into 'My Computer'? Sometimes when I access a CD/DVD drive Windows will randomly poke every drive in the system. There's a few programs I use that will poke all the drives if you go into a file dialog...

Overall it's just very hard to get windows not to poke your drives needlessly.

Nope, just tried it and going into "My Computer" doesn't do that - maybe some strange setting? I've got the complete Win7 install on my SSD without any changes to systemfiles or power settings (if you're using a SSD, maybe you put some system files on a HDD that's accessed in that case?), the HDDs are mostly data storage and for larger but not often needed applications.


The programs thing on the other hand seems like the programs are accessing data they don't need - depending on what programs you may be able to file a bug report?

 

[readymix]

lian li BZ-H06

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

lian li BZ-H06

This is actually what I need!

Crap, all the parts I ordered are in transit from New Egg - :hmm:

EDIT: where the hell can you find them? Looks like they were released March 2010, and I can't find them anywhere in the states..