Spin down utility for individual hard drives

[Deanodarlo]

I've looked everywhere for a utility to spin down an individual hard drive but can't find one anywhere. Windows has power option settings, but it effects all hard drives in the system.

Since the second one is only used for backup and also happens to be the loudest with an annoying whine, I'd like to be able to spin it down individually and almost instantaneously as soon as windows boots.

Anyone know about a utility that allows me to do this? The drive is a quantum fireball plus as.

 

[EeyoreX]

I do not believe this is possible. Windows keeps either all the drives spinning, or stops them all, and this is by design. Windows does not know where data will be written to or read from at any time, so it keeps all drives ready. Nor is it set up for "selective" power saving. Either the PC is set to save power, or it's not. AFAIK, the only way to get around this for your backup drive, is to buy an external USB or IEEE1394 enclosure, and unplug it/turn it off when the drive is not needed. Or, alternatively, plug it in when it is needed.

\Dan

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

I know that in windows you can set a timeout for drives to spin down after inactivity, that's not per-drive?

Hardware-wise it's definitely possible, "hdparm -Y" can do it.

 

[Deanodarlo]

I've found a drive bay removable case with a key to turn power on and off to the second drive.

That should do the trick and protects from power surges and viruses. Plus I like having quick access to the second drive for creating large archives and handeling video streams - it's so much faster with two drives when you eliminate seek times.

Thanks for the replies.