Selective power down?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve H
  • Start date Start date
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Steve H

As part of my backup setup I run a second hard drive in a removeable
caddy, and use XXcopy at the end of the day to back up my files.
That's pretty much the only time the second drive is used - so it
occurs to me that I could save energy, prevent wear and cut down on
noise by powering down this second drive when not in use.

However, as far as I can see W98 only has options to power down all
drives - which is no use to me as the main drive is used throughout
the day.

Does anyone know of a freeware utility that allows selective powering
down of the hard drives?

Regards,
 
As part of my backup setup I run a second hard drive in a removeable
caddy, and use XXcopy at the end of the day to back up my files.
That's pretty much the only time the second drive is used - so it
occurs to me that I could save energy, prevent wear and cut down on
noise by powering down this second drive when not in use.

However, as far as I can see W98 only has options to power down all
drives - which is no use to me as the main drive is used throughout
the day.

Does anyone know of a freeware utility that allows selective powering
down of the hard drives?

Regards,
Click to expand...
How about the same thing for XP.
GJB
 
GJB said:
How about the same thing for XP.
GJB
Click to expand...

AFAIK, it might be possible programatically to shut down the the drives on
the primary controller, and on the secondary controller, but not seperate
drives on the same controller, although I could be wrong here. Only with
SCSI could you shut down devices independantly. I'll try to look into this
and let you know.
HK
 
(e-mail address removed) ( Steve H):
As part of my backup setup I run a second hard drive in a removeable
caddy, and use XXcopy at the end of the day to back up my files.
That's pretty much the only time the second drive is used - so it
occurs to me that I could save energy, prevent wear and cut down on
noise by powering down this second drive when not in use.

However, as far as I can see W98 only has options to power down all
drives - which is no use to me as the main drive is used throughout
the day.

Does anyone know of a freeware utility that allows selective powering
down of the hard drives?
Click to expand...

Would it be too inconvenient for you to reboot a couple of times a day? If
not, I'd recommend entering your BIOS, and telling it the drive does not
exist. Then doing the same, reversed, when you need to access the drive to
XXcopy your daily backup. The advantage of telling the BIOS that the drive
is not there would not be just letting the drive rest, but more important:
a good measure of protection in the case of virus outbreak.
 
(e-mail address removed) ( Steve H):


Would it be too inconvenient for you to reboot a couple of times a day? If
not, I'd recommend entering your BIOS, and telling it the drive does not
exist. Then doing the same, reversed, when you need to access the drive to
XXcopy your daily backup. The advantage of telling the BIOS that the drive
is not there would not be just letting the drive rest, but more important:
a good measure of protection in the case of virus outbreak.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it would be :)
I mean, it's an option - I wouldn't have to fiddle with the bios
though, the drive's in a sliding caddy, with the 2nd ide channel set
to auto-detect ( as I use a set of three drives of differing specs ).

It's all about convenience really - I've got the system pretty quiet
now, with a passive cpu cooler, 24v fan running at 12v on the power
supply and everything within safe temperature specifications. Having
the backup drive spin down would be the icing on the cake.

Did some hunting last night, but only came up with a few options, all
of which are dos based and don't look like they'll work with windows -
plus a seagate tool which may or may not work with other brands of
drives.

I know it can be done, I've seen a shareware prog that seems to do all
I want.

Regards,
 
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