Turning off 2nd Hard Drive

I am trying to minimize heat build up in my computer. I have a 2nd hard drive that I occasionally use to clone my 1st hard drive. Windows XP Power Options are set to turn off all Hard Drives after 15 minutes. However that option doesn't work since it doesn't isolate the hard drives. If I, or the operating system page file, access the main HD they both will turn on. Is there any other way to software turn off & on my 2nd hard drive. Now I must plug or unplug the cables as needed.
thanks
denny

 

Thanks for the reply,
That's is a option to consider at a later date. Right now I'm just exploring onboard options.
Thanks,
denny

 

On both my machines the second (and 3rd & 4th) hard drives stay powered down until they are actually used. Something in your XP must be wanting to access the drive to start it up, probably either a pagefile or System Restore. Check that there is not a pagefile on it and set System Restore to not monitor that drive.

 

Thanks for the reply,

I think you nailed it... System restore was set to monitor the 2nd hard drive. Pagefile was only on the C drive.
thanks again,
denny

 

May also want to check / untick Indexing Service for these drives.

 

Thanks for the reply,

I checked under "Services/Local" and it was "Not Started" and set to "Manual ".

I also felt the hard drive. Nothing I've done so far has stopped it from spinning.

 

See if it stops if you disable the antivirus. See if the antivirus can be stopped from scanning that drive.

 

I have McAfee installed and found no option to monitor drives separately. The default option are set, and if I don't direct anything to the drive I want to shut down, I'm gona assume that McAfee it won't be trying to access the drive. I don't know if Microsoft has installed anything that monitors for viruses. I remember that during my last update Microsoft did run some sort of virus checker, but I thought it was a one time thing. I'm still going to shut down McAfee and check the drive.
thanks for tips.
denny

 

Disableing McAfee did not help. The drive still would not spin down after the power options time to shut down hard drives were pasted.

 

Will need more input from forum hardware experts.
My "question / suggestion" ... Could their be a HDD cabling solution. Not knowing "drhans2" current configuration, (please provide), but is their a preferred configuration which would allow a higher level of "control for the individual drive "? (also HDD firmware updates and BIOS). Very busy weekend, will have little time to contribute to this thread over the weekend.

 

Thanks for the reply,
Here's the info I think you requested.

[ Components ]

- Antec Sonata II Case ( 450W ATX12V v2.01 power supply)
- ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe Motherboard (temp 35° deg's C)
- Pentium D 830 LGA775 EM64T 3.0GHz CPU with Intel Heatsink & Fan (temp 55° deg's C)
- eVGA Geforce 6600GT 128MB PCIe
- 1GB OCZ DDR2 667 PC5400
- 160 GB Seagate SATA (Boot drive set as master)
- 40 GB Maxtor PATA md# 54098u8 (Drive also to master, different controller than the boot drive)
- 1 CD drive
- 1 DVD drive
- Windows XP Pro
- BIOS is the latest one from ASUS

[current configuration]

My boot drive is a 160 GB SATA Hard Drive attached to SATA-1 (disk 0).
I have a Cd & Dvd drive attached to the PRI_IDE (BLUE) connector (master & slave).

My 2nd drive is a 40 GB PATA attached to the ULTRA DMA 66 to the PRI EIDE (RED) connector. (ITE 8211F Controller). (Master).

At first I did have some weird problems with the 2nd hard drive which I narrowed down to the the ribbon cable. (no defect in the cable just signal noise) I replaced the cable with a shielded round cable and that corrected the problem.

These notes below I got from the "web" might shed some light as to why the drive won't shut down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note's I got from ASUS & Newegg's forum's.......................

Drives connected to the Red PRI_EIDE Connector are on the ITE 8211F Controller
And only will be identified at POST during boot up.
The drives will not be displayed in the BIOS Setup.

Think of the ITE Controller as if it were an expansion board that needs a driver.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
thanks
denny

 

Off hand, the Maxtor 40GB should run at 100 Ultra DMA, at least, and is probably Ultra DMA 133. You should check it with the Maxtor utilities (MaxBlast or PowerMax...there should be a utility to change the Ultra DMA setting...unless...you have it on a 40 lead ribbon cable, it needs an 80 lead connector. You can use a 40 lead cable for the optical drives.

ITE is new to me (PATA has been EIDE/IDE).

There may be a setting in the BIOS settings to disable an IDE (ITE?) Controller. You could disable the drive on that Controller until you needed it.

Matt

 

Hello Matt,

Entry error on my part, the 40 GB HD is connected to a shielded cable that is labeled ULTA ATA 133/100/66. The ASUS P5LD2 deluxe user guide says it a IDE connector (40-1 pin PRI_EIDE, & SEC_EIDE ) with 2ea red connectors. These connectors "ITE" / "IDE" supports up to four IDE HD's. They will not support ATAPI devices.

You mentioned that I might be able to disable the controller in the BIOS. Do you mean that if I go to "My computer" / "Device Manager "/ and than "disable" the ITE 8211F Controller" that will shut down the power to the HD?

If I disable the controller will I need to reinstall anything to bring the HD back on line?

Or are you thinking that I need to disable it by going into the "Setup" during boot up?

As far as the 40 lead ribbon cable vs the 80 conductor cable goes.. I'm using what appears to be a 80 lead cable. But it must be some sort of electrical magic cause it's connected to a 40 pin connector on the MB.

thanks,
denny

 

Sorry, got a little confused when I saw UDMA 66. Everything should be OK there.

I was thinking of an option in the BIOS settings (yes, Setup) for disabling the primary or secondary controllers. I have seen them in some BIOSes. Best place to look would be in the motherboard manual to save you plowing through the menus and sub-menus.

The thought about disabling in Windows should be worth a try, although I would take the BIOS option first. That way Windows won't see it all.

I should not have said "connection" for the 80 lead cable. It gets confusing because they are universally known as "80 pin cables ", but as you pointed out, there are only 40 pins . The extra wires are earth leads. They are required for UDMA 66 and above.

Matt

 

Matt,

Thanks for the explanation about the 40 vs 80 conductor cabling. I'm guessing the extra grounding must be tied to noise. I needed to replace my ribbon cable with a shielded cable before my HD would even be acknowledged.

From reading the manual it looks like I can disable the ITE 8211F controller either way. I'll will do some experimenting to see if power to the drive is shut off vie the Windows Device Manager first, as thats the most convent way to solve my problem.

Am I correct to assume that if I disable the controller in the BIOS, I might recover some time from the "Start Time" when starting Windows?

Thanks for your help in this issue.
denny

 

Save time, yes, let us know how much if you can, but maybe only a few seconds.

Matt

 

No. You have to go into BIOS & disable it (press Del when the system is booting up to access BIOS).

Even if you were to disable it by BIOS, power is being still supplied to the hard disk & Windows would recognise it.

No.

Correct, but would not work. You would have to physically take out the power cable.

The electrical magic is not on the board or the hard disk, its in the connections & cable. 80 conductor cable has 40 conductors & 40 ground connectors (40 + 40 = 80) for faster speeds and less crosstalk. The connectors on board & hard disks are physically & visually similar to 40 cable connections.

 

rsinfo, can you confirm that the drive is running at full revs in those circumstances? I can physically hear my second HDD rev up when I open Windows Explorer or access something in My Computer (I only keep data on it).

Matt