How to turn off individual hard drives through software

[DarKStar]

I keep my system on 24/7 usually and I will be adding a 2nd HDD to it, however I do not want to keep that one on 24/7 and want to keep it for temp storage. That secondary drive will also be made bootable as well, and no I do not want to use it in an external enclosure but inside my system. Both are SATA2 running in IDE emulation mode.

Here's what I am looking for. Is there a software utility that will allow me to individually shut off hard drives in my system ? I reckon back in the days I used a utility that did that under the windows console where you told it which drive # to turn off and it did..... I am using Windows 7 64bit. Remember, I am not talking about the power option in windows, I want to shut down ONLY the 2nd drive and keep the 1st one running. Once I want to use it I would turn it on, again through software.

Is there such a thing, would really be very happy if there is.

[Zero82z]

You could try disabling the drive in Device Manager, though I'm not sure if that would stop it from consuming power. If you were running your drives in AHCI mode it would also be trivial to do this.

[DarKStar]

No, removing it from device manager would not work as power would still go through it.

[Zero82z]

Well, if you're willing to give it a shot, I suggest that you look up what you need to do to switch your OS to AHCI mode, and then make the change. That will allow you to use the hotswap feature to safely disconnect the HD while Windows is active. If you ever want to reconnect it, just scan for new hardware.

[ilya]

I use this software to spin down my drives: HDDScan – free HDD test utility with USB flash and RAID support
I do it to reduce noise/vibrations, I also use it for AAM.
With some drives you can turn the motor off completely. Do note that the drive isn't disconnected or turned off, it's just that the disk isn't spinning so it's using a lot less power.

[_dangtx_]

hmm, when not in use it should park itself and consume very little power. id go old school with a usb enclosure so its easy to remove(like the tray) but its also protected in the said enclosure unless you go for one of those fancy tray systems

[Arinoth]

These hard drives use very little power at idle, and the WD greens use any more. I have an energy meter hooked up to my htpc/server and when i have all my drives spinning vs one its barely even noticeable on the power consumption as HDDs are not you big power guzzlers, its the mobo/cpu and graphics card

[Squeetard]

Just set your power management scheme to turn off your drives after 10 minutes or whatever time you deem best. My htpc has an os ssd and 2tb storage drive, with this config the 2tb drive stays off if I am not using it. As soon as you go to write and read it it spins up, takes a bit. This works well and is automatic.

[Inate8]

Power management would probably be your best bet. It will keep your main drive running if anything is accessing it, while shutting down your secondary if nothing is accessing it.
When it really comes down to it though, why? You're going to save... no power doing this. HDD's run on nothing once they are spun up, in fact it takes MORE power to spin up 4-5 times a day than it does to just run all day.

[DarKStar]

Originally Posted by Zero82z

Well, if you're willing to give it a shot, I suggest that you look up what you need to do to switch your OS to AHCI mode, and then make the change. That will allow you to use the hotswap feature to safely disconnect the HD while Windows is active. If you ever want to reconnect it, just scan for new hardware.

Thanks but the whole idea is that I want to control this by software and not physically unplug connectors.