Turning off 2nd Hard Drive

Yes. Until power is being supplied to a desktop drive, it would keep spinning at full revs. On certain newer drives, you have a Power Option, wherein you could decide how much power you want it to consume, sleep mode etc. Check the hdd manufacturer's website. You may have to download tool(s) to activate/access hidden settings in your drive.

Good luck.

 

Ok.... I have tried to disable the HD both way's and rsinfo is correct. When I disable the controller either in Windows Device Manager or the System BIOS, I could "feel" that the HD was still spinning.

When I first disabled it in device manager I could "feel" the HD doing something (parking the heads?) when I clicked to disable it.

I could not "feel" any changes in the speed of the HD when disabled, other than it was still spinning.

I did check with Maxtor tech support this morning and they said there was no way to shut down the drive with their software. They did suggested that I look for a third party software that might address the power issue.

So for now I will need to pull the plug on the HD to power it down.

I will probably mount a toggle switch in a empty 3.5 drive bay and wire it inline with the power plug so I don't haft to open the case to power down the HD.

Necessary is the mother of invention. (or laziness).

Thanks to all for the help.
denny
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You should excercise caution re: the toggle switch concept. I'm not going to say it won't work but if you are planning on using this approach without shutting down your machine, you could be headed for trouble unless you configure the HDD as a removable device and even that might not do it. A removable drive bay would definately be the way to go and one can find a decent one with a keyed switch for under $10 in the US. Just be careful if you try a hot swap setup - you won't have to worry about shutting down your extra HDD once the controller is blown.

 

The toggle switch should be 4 port switch for switching on/off all the four power lines at once or you would get a fried hard disk/controller. Even then I would be very wary since most of the current desktop hardware is not built to withstand such kind of use (or misuse depending on your view ).

I would leave the 2nd hard disk running at all times - even then it should (theoretically) have an average life span of around 5 years (thats 24 x 7 x 365 ).