question Keep drive powered down?

[Adcadet]

Hey Gang,
I'm getting ready to build a new PC for myself in January or February. In addition to my main OS, I would like to keep a hard drive as a spare ("lifeboat") with a relatively minimal installation of Windows and my work software, including the bits needed for VPNing into work. I may be paranoid, but about 2 years ago I did this and it saved me a lot of hassle when my main OS got flaky. On the other hand, I don't really want to keep the drive powered up and spinning 24/7. My case will have a hot swap bay, but it seems like asking for trouble if I keep the backup hard drive on top of my desk and have to plug it in to use it with the resultant wear - it just doesn't seem as safe as mounting the hard drive inside the case. And I suspect I will boot into this "lifeboat" OS every now and then just to update the software and confirm that it still works (I could only when I need the OS, but if I'm having computer problems I don't want to spend the time doing a major OS update before I can use the OS). Is there an easy way to turn off the hard drive or make sure it doesn't spin up? If I disable it in the BIOS, will the drive still power up and stay spinning? Can I tell Windows 7 to spin down individual drives if they're not used?

 

[LunarMist]

The hotswap bays are fine for occasional use. If your SATA controller and OS support hot swapping you can use a power switch for the drive(s) that do not need to be on all the time. I have been doing that for years with my backup drives. Some chipsets such as SIL3132 support a power down command. They can be stopped via a small app and restarted via hardwawre check. I used some DOS batch files on the desktop for that a few years ago.

 

[BingBangBop]

I agree that a hot swap bay is the easy solution and relatively safe if you have a safe place to store it when not being used. If you really needed to, I suppose you could mount a switch into the case and splice it into the drive's power line. Just make sure that you only use the switch when the machine is powered down.

 

[LunarMist]

I agree that a hot swap bay is the easy solution and relatively safe if you have a safe place to store it when not being used. If you really needed to, I suppose you could mount a switch into the case and splice it into the drive's power line. Just make sure that you only use the switch when the machine is powered down.

I normally do it when the computer is running. I suppose there might be a problem with some wimpy power supplies, but one drive should be fine.

 

[BingBangBop]

I wouldn't worry about the PS as much as how well the drive can deal with power spikes and ripple that comes with using a mechanical switch on an active powered line. Further there is no gain to do it while the computer is running for normally windows won't detect a new IDE/SATA drive except during bootup.

 

[LunarMist]

Maybe not drives on ICH, but most SATA RAID controllers and often the onboard extra ports support individual drives powering on/off as hot swap. I have 4 external SATA drives in an Addonics enclosure and 3 internal drives that function as such. It would be a major PITA to have to reboot. :shake2:

 

[BingBangBop]

I'll agree that raid controllers often have that capability built in as opposed to native Windows drive support (non-usb).

 

[Stereodude]

I wouldn't worry about the PS as much as how well the drive can deal with power spikes and ripple that comes with using a mechanical switch on an active powered line. Further there is no gain to do it while the computer is running for normally windows won't detect a new IDE/SATA drive except during bootup.

Uh... Pretty much every controller since the ICH6 supports SATA hotswap. Windows most definitely will detect a new SATA drive started once the PC is in Windows (as long as your using AHCI or RAID mode on the ICH and not IDE mode). The same goes for nVidia, AMD, and whoever else makes SATA chipsets.

 

[LunarMist]

Can do you spin down a non-boot drive on the ICH in ACHI mode with a command?

 

[Stereodude]

I've been able to using HotSwap!

 

[LunarMist]

Yes, that is the one!