On off switch for an internal hard drive ..

[Neos]

Installed a new 40 g Seagate, and I have this 8 g Maxtor left over. I did this to try and make the pc quieter - plus more room.

BUT ...

It is not that much quieter (more work needed) - and I am thinking I would like that smaller drive in there for backup. I would like to install a switch to turn the hard drive off and on as needed - (to keep down the noise).

Practical - doable -??

Thanks
Andrew in AL

 

[Mermaidman]

Hmm--Would the Master/Slave settings be OK if you cut the power to the spare HD?

 

[scooter1]

You can go into the power options window and set the "Turn off hard disk" option to a short time interval. Of course it would affect all of your hard drives.

 

[JetBlack69]

Originally posted by: Mermaidman
Hmm--Would the Master/Slave settings be OK if you cut the power to the spare HD?

You could put them both on Cable Select.

 

[jagec]

I think your only hope would be to get some old UW or U2W SCA SCSI stuff (hot swap), I'm pretty sure you can't do what you're suggesting without risking damage to the hardware.

What you COULD do is mount a switch, and be able to turn it on and off before you boot the computer...

 

[Neos]

That is what I was thinking - a small toggle switch mounted to the back.

What got me to thinking on this was seeing some of these hd enclosures that have on/off switches. I figured that it should make no difference if the hd was in or out.

The set both to cable select might be the way to go - but would that mess up the C drive being the boot drive?

Andrew

 

[dkozloski]

I think you are going to have problems with the way drive letters are assigned if you try booting it up with the power turned off to a hard drive and then powering the drive up later. Also, depending on how the drives are partitioned you are going to get different drive letters assigned to any DVD or CD-ROM drives with higher letters than the hard drives. You may be able to figure it all out but I'll bet you get some results that you don't expect.

 

[JackBurton]

Get one of these. Once the drive is inserted, you can turn the key to give the drive power or turn it the opposite way and turn it off. You can obviously take it out, but like I said, you can turn it off and with teh turn of a key with the drive still in. I would recommend having the machine powered down before you decide if you want it off or on though.

P.S. I have two of them.

 

[grrl]

Originally posted by: dkozloski
I think you are going to have problems with the way drive letters are assigned if you try booting it up with the power turned off to a hard drive and then powering the drive up later. Also, depending on how the drives are partitioned you are going to get different drive letters assigned to any DVD or CD-ROM drives with higher letters than the hard drives. You may be able to figure it all out but I'll bet you get some results that you don't expect.

If the hard drive is the last drive he installs, then there should be no problem. That's probably just as well for him too since he just wants it for back up.

I agree with the others who are suggesting you put a toggle on the case. I think that even if you boot up with the drive turned off, you can turn it on and then run a New Hardware scan in Device Manager to get it recognized without rebooting. I'm pretty sure that will work.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Why not get an USB enclosure and hook it up that way?

 

[Neos]

Two reasons I am thinking of this method. One is space. With all the stuff that is in this corner, even a small enclosure like that adds to the clutter.

Second is - just wanted to see if it was doable!

Thanks for all the hints. I am going to give it a shot with a toggle. I will make a post afterward to let folk know if it works.

Andrew in AL

 

[corkyg]

This is easily done by mounting your HDDs in mobile racks. I have had these on/off switches for over three years now. The racks are connected Cable Select - and which ever one is "on" is "it."

 

[Neos]

Ok Cork - that sounds pretty good.

So I can just mount it in the extra spot in my case, and put it on cable select? What about the master / primary drive - CS or MAS?

Bear in mind that I have an older mainboard that does not have RAID. Don't knwo if that makes a difference.

Thanks
Andrew in AL

 

[corkyg]

You set the HDD at CS and use the newer CS compatible cable (blue, black and gray ends - black is #1, Gray is #2, blue is mobo.) It has nothing to do with RAID. I have used this solution for several years on older AMD and Intel CPU boards.

The mobile rack can be mounted in any open 5.25" bay.