[Ham-Computers] RE: Hard drive "parking"

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

As mentioned aready, drives manufactured in the past 10 years or so autopark when powered-off (the actuator is slightly biased (magnetically) to move the arms "out" to the end of the platters if there's no power to hold the arm in place).  Some drives even autopark after a few seconds of inactivity - this is sometimes audible as a "click".

There are ways to "spin-down" the drive using OS power management, but it's dependent on your OS supporting this function.  In Windows, it's in the Power Management control panel - you can set a timeout for the hard drives (but not independently).  Just be aware that there will be a slight delay to "spin-up" if something needs to access drives that are spun-down.  Also note that this is not quite the same as fully powering-off the drive - only the drive motor is turned off.

And, Ron has a good idea - put the drive in an external USB (or FireWire) enclosure and turn it off when not needed.  An alternative is to get a removable drive chassis for your PC and the matching drive "caddy" (aka "tray") for your drive (these have been available for years).  You plug the the "caddy" into the system when needed and remove it when done.  The advantage with this method is speed - the chassis connects via PATA or SATA.  HOWEVER, these removable drive caddies are *NOT* hot pluggable - at least none that I've seen.  You'll need to power-down the system to insert/remove the drive.

73,

  - Aaron, NN6O

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 6:20 PM
Subject: [Ham-Computers] Hard drive "parking"


    I have a second hard drive in my system used as storage and backup. 
I'm not crazy about having this drive spinning constantly, when it is 
used for only a short time each day or two. I recall in the "old days" 
that there was a DOS command that allowed "parking" a drive either when 
not in use or for transporting. Is there a simple way to turn a drive 
"off" until it's needed, or is this even a good idea these days?

Tnx es 73
Dave
KB3MOW