Is there any way to get win 7 to selectively shut down a hard disk? I have 2 identical drives inside my PC but 1 is only for backup and I only need it to run at start up and when I do my weekly disk copy.

Power management options take effect on all drives so I'm looking for some undocumented way to power down my redundant drive when not needed.

Not that I know of, but if powering down the hard disk say after 20 minutes (and if one is not used then it may not even power up perhaps maybe) then there is a bit of a lag before it gets up to speed again.

I imagine there's software to layer over the OS. It seems like my laptop comes with all sorts of Toshiba name brand power saving controls.

Or

How about a hard wire multi pole single throw switch for the power connection, mounted in the chassis, that you only switch once or twice a week when the system is powered down?


best regards,
mike

You might be better off to put the drive in an external usb enclosure as I believe that you can control the power scheme for separate usb ports/hubs in device mgr. or you could just turn the drive off when not in use.

May not be the solution for you but I really don't know how you would do that with a single drive controller in the PC. It might work if your motherboard has two separate drive controllers but I have never tried it.

Kind regards,
Rick

>> You might be better off to put the drive in an external usb enclosure

Trust me .. You don't want your backup drive in the same PC connected to the same power supply. 

I once made that mistake, I had a raid mirror setup and a schedule backup to a third drive; all in the same PC.  Then, one day the P.O.S.  power supply popped and took all five drives out in my DAW at once, all drives had big burn spots on their controller circuit cards. 

I got the data back by getting identical drives and swapping controller boards on each drive; but I had about a month of down time.  I still use RAID, but augment it with backups to external drives on their own power supplies. I do the same thing on our media server too. 

The external option to an eSATA port was my first thought.

Just plug in at backup time and unplug when finished. (Not sure if the external cases have a power switch or not but it is a thought)

Hi John,

I'd put that backup HD in an eSATA or USB3 (external) docking station.
You'll only turn it on "as needed"... and it's easy to swap out backup HDs once the current drive is full.
Also... quick/easy to connect to other PCs for transfer/backup...

Thanks for the ideas. I have a number of USB 2 drives but I've yet to find one that delivers the goods. My internal drives are 1 gig WD black that are SATA2. Cloning my primary to a USB 2 drive takes forever, but between the internal drives it's not bad.

It also occurs to me that I'm a complete dunder head. The second drive is in a hot swap bay. I should be able to just pull it out to reduce noise and heat, then insert when required. DOH!!

I can't believe my computer savy tanked so badly. I blame it on Y2K. It was one of my assigned duties from 1998 - 2000. Prepare a Steelmaking plant for 12:01 Jan 1st. You likely have no idea. If you do, you've likely had a heart attack or at least developed a nervous twitch. Never wanted to deal with computers after that.