2nd Request: Power Options - Disk Turn Off

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob Felton
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Bob Felton

Original Posting: 30 Apr 04

Does this function apply to all installed hard disks as a group or
does it apply to each drive individually? For example, a 2-drive
system, drives C and D. If drive C has had activity within the
time-out period but drive D has not, will drive D be shutdown?

Does the drive shutdown function work on USB connected hard disks?

Tnx!
 
Tell ya what I can.
It works that way for SCSI drives at least.
Idling, system times out for disk access and all the drives spin down.
Sometimes the C drive will spin down also but not always.
Flip the mouse or whatever and the C drive spins up and the system runs.
Go into Winders Explorer and tap into the J drive and it alone spins up.

I suspect the same is true of IDE drives but.... uh.....<cough> I'm somewhat
ignorant of IDE stuff.

So yes, it functions both as a group and individually. Such that if I'm accessing
the J drive and move on to the K drive or something, eventually when I go back
to the J drive, if it's been long enough, it will have spun down again. If the data
is still in a buffer you can navigate around in the J drive for a while or view files
until you go somewhere that isn't in the buffers or initiate an operation that requires
actual disk activity like moving files. Then the drive spins up again and the
countdown starts all over for that drive.

Having a lot of fast hot drives it saves my system from being a space heater.

USB drives? Dunno.


Original Posting: 30 Apr 04

Does this function apply to all installed hard disks as a group or
does it apply to each drive individually? For example, a 2-drive
system, drives C and D. If drive C has had activity within the
time-out period but drive D has not, will drive D be shutdown?

Does the drive shutdown function work on USB connected hard disks?

Tnx!
Click to expand...
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Thanks for your response. I am thinking about adding a large IDE
drive to a server that has a RAID 5 array of three disks (with an
additional hot spare drive ) for the sole purpose of backing up data
files on a daily basis; not so much for data protection but for being
able to restore older versions of a file when necessary. In essence,
taking the place of daily tape backups. I was hoping that the IDE
drive wouldn't be spinning the whole time, only when the
backup/restore was taking place.

The external USB drive would be for taking a weekly backup and then
keeping it off site. Was just curious if the platter spinning was
controlled the same as for internal drives.
--
Bob



Tell ya what I can.
It works that way for SCSI drives at least.
Idling, system times out for disk access and all the drives spin down.
Sometimes the C drive will spin down also but not always.
Flip the mouse or whatever and the C drive spins up and the system runs.
Go into Winders Explorer and tap into the J drive and it alone spins up.

I suspect the same is true of IDE drives but.... uh.....<cough> I'm somewhat
ignorant of IDE stuff.

So yes, it functions both as a group and individually. Such that if I'm accessing
the J drive and move on to the K drive or something, eventually when I go back
to the J drive, if it's been long enough, it will have spun down again. If the data
is still in a buffer you can navigate around in the J drive for a while or view files
until you go somewhere that isn't in the buffers or initiate an operation that requires
actual disk activity like moving files. Then the drive spins up again and the
countdown starts all over for that drive.

Having a lot of fast hot drives it saves my system from being a space heater.

USB drives? Dunno.


Original Posting: 30 Apr 04

Does this function apply to all installed hard disks as a group or
does it apply to each drive individually? For example, a 2-drive
system, drives C and D. If drive C has had activity within the
time-out period but drive D has not, will drive D be shutdown?

Does the drive shutdown function work on USB connected hard disks?

Tnx!
Click to expand...
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Bait for spammers:
root@localhost
postmaster@localhost
admin@localhost
abuse@localhost
postmaster@[127.0.0.1]
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Click to expand...
 
System Administrator said:
The external USB drive would be for taking a weekly backup and then
keeping it off site. Was just curious if the platter spinning was
controlled the same as for internal drives.
Click to expand...


To the best of my knowledge, USB drives do not power off like internal
drives through power management. Many recent USB enclosures have a built-in
power down time, such as 1 hour. A few of the drives I saw reviewed
recently also have a button on the enclosure to put the drive in idle mode.

--

Mike Brown
Process Manager

Asset Forwarding Corp.
EPA-compliant Recycling
DoD-standard Data Elimination
http://www.assetforwarding.com
 
Thanks for that input, Mike.


To the best of my knowledge, USB drives do not power off like internal
drives through power management. Many recent USB enclosures have a built-in
power down time, such as 1 hour. A few of the drives I saw reviewed
recently also have a button on the enclosure to put the drive in idle mode.

--

Mike Brown
Process Manager

Asset Forwarding Corp.
EPA-compliant Recycling
DoD-standard Data Elimination
http://www.assetforwarding.com
Click to expand...
 
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