Can I turn internal storage hard disks on and off individually?

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I'm considering building a new Windows-based work PC.

Some of my work requires vast amounts of storage. Currently I'm serving that need by using a number of external USB drives.

Given that I never need those external drives anywhere else, for the new machine, I'd prefer a solution where those drives are fixed inside the PC, next to the SSD that will contain the system partition and the most essential work data.

However, because I live off the grid (and because HDDs can get loud!) I would like the storage hard disks to strictly remain turned off (ideally even when starting up!) until I need them - just like I would plug in a USB hard drive when I need it.

From what I've gathered, this is not possible using Windows' built-in energy saving features itself: its "power saving" features will affect either all hard disks at once, or none.

Is there a software, BIOS, or hardware solution that helps achieve this goal?

Pekka

Posted 2017-01-01T11:13:41.480

Reputation: 2 239

Question was closed 2017-01-01T15:50:30.473

1Not sure what your problem is if you have all HDDs spin down after a while. If you choose the time a bit longer, your main HDDs will never spin down due to log file etc activities. If you really think you need to treat HDDs differently, have you looked into HDD control commands? I seem to recall that at least some models allow to ignore the energy saving commands. – Run CMD – 2017-01-01T11:28:37.963

You can also send raw commands to your drive, using hdparm or whatnot. Of course, Windows may wake them up again unless they’re unmounted. – Daniel B – 2017-01-01T11:59:37.767

Answers

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As a software solution it could be Windows's utility mountvol or devcon (need to be downloaded from Microsoft here ) if you want automate it with scripting, or you can go to device manager, make a right click on a disk you want to shutdown and click on "disable". Enable it when you need it again. The same can be done with devcon

Hardware solution could be tricky, if your disk controller supporting hot plugging, then cut yellow and red wires that feed your "switchable" HDD(s) and solder it to any simple switches like that

   red     __/ ___ red
   yellow  __/ ___ yellow

try first simply disconnect and reconnect HDD to be make sure Windows recognizing it after you re-plug it. Some bad controllers behaves sometime not like advertised as hot swap, then you need to "Rescan disks" in "disk manager" to get it visible again

Alex

Posted 2017-01-01T11:13:41.480

Reputation: 5 606

Asked: 2017-01-01T11:13:41.480

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Active: 2017-01-01T13:28:38.600