Individually Control HDD Power

Gadgetman496

I’ve long since abandoned the use of Dual Booting due to the hassles which can be associated with it, like corrupt boot\grub loaders or the nuisance encountered when it comes to formatting for a clean install of one OS etc, plus, I have internal drives I only use for storage occasionally. I know too that that the majority of seemingly good ideas one might conjure up are already out there. With that in mind I set out looking for a supplier of something that would allow me to conveniently control the power to internal HDD’s independently.

I managed to source three different providers, one of which was for IDE drives only and has since gone out of business but the other two had units for SATA drives which are still available. The problem is that these two sources are on the wrong side of the world & if at all possible I’d prefer to avoid the grief associated with that too, like long lead time & possible extra charges for import taxes etc.

I’d imagine too that it’s a fairly niche market?

Do any of you know of a reliable source closer to home who provide such units?

These are the two examples of what I’ve found so far.


PCI Plate Option 4 Port:










3.5" Bay Option 4 Port (Also available in a 6 port 5.25" Bay option)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Startech-com-Drive-Removable-Mobile-Backplane/dp/B002UANGS6

Not exactly what you're looking for, but this type of backplane has individual power buttons for each drive.

Gadgetman496

Thanks for the link. Not exactly what I'm after but another option eitherway

ozmo

You can set the drives to power down when not in use- that worked for me...

Or you could house the drives externally in a nas box - they power down when not being used...?

riclad

in Windows, see control panel,power options,
There,s turn off hardisk after x minutes,
System standby after x minutes,
i find dual,boot in linux,mint,or ubuntu very easy to use.
On average,linux OS, uses less power than a windows os,
shut down services you don,t need ,like smartcard, ,Remote desktop,
if you don,t use them.
i always turn off at least 7 services on awindows 7 pc.
OR PUT most of your data on a usb drive external,if you only use it now and again.

Torqay

riclad wrote: »

i always turn off at least 7 services on a windows 7 pc.

I think, that's not why they called it Windows 7.

whizbang

Why dont you make up a set of switches yourself, and wire the +5volts (red wire) to each drive, through the switch.

A better option, (if you can find the right cables) is to connect to the spinup pin on the drive power connector. may depend motherboard also.

ozmo

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Thanks for the link. Not exactly what I'm after but another option eitherway

Problem i can see is windows and other os dont like drives just disappearing- if you pull the power while a drive is on you could corrupt stuff- you would need set the drives to be non write cached (like flash memory sticks) and this will seriously limit their speed. Maybe the purchased units have some software that tells windows to write everything from memory out and unmount the drive properly before powering down... Or maybe not...

Gadgetman496

From what I can see they seem to be recommending that drives are not to be powered up or down during usage, only from boot?

Torqay

gadgetman496 wrote: »

From what I can see they seem to be recommending that drives are not to be powered up or down during usage, only from boot?

I can't see why, because all SATA drives support hot-swapping.

Gadgetman496

Torqay wrote: »

I can't see why, because all SATA drives support hot-swapping.

I was thinking exactly the same Torqay, when you boot a machine normally, all connected drives get powered immediately right? So what changes after the system is fully up and Mobo, CPU & RAM is fully functional? I could see an issue with a drive containing an OS, you know the way windows gives that "Windows did not shut down correctly" Msg? but for storage drives I don't think it's any difference to unplugging an external without using safely remove?

Ideally I'd like it to work like this.

Only switch power on drives containing OS when powered off but be able to turn on or off the storage drives on the fly....

Torqay

Probably some obligatory warning, as you may loose data if you turn off the drive while system is writing to it.

ozmo

gadgetman496 wrote: »

I was thinking exactly the same Torqay, when you boot a machine normally, all connected drives get powered immediately right? So what changes after the system is fully up and Mobo, CPU & RAM is fully functional? I could see an issue with a drive containing an OS, you know the way windows gives that "Windows did not shut down correctly" Msg? but for storage drives I don't think it's any difference to unplugging an external without using safely remove?

Ideally I'd like it to work like this.

Only switch power on drives containing OS when powered off but be able to turn on or off the storage drives on the fly....

These are sata though - not usb external. They may not always appear and be available after powered on after the windows has started - (win 7 might be ok - but in xp- i know ive tried hot plugging in drives -you sometimes have to go do a manual find devices for the drive to appear)- and i wouldnt do it with a pc or a drive whose data i cared about though as you have to think about power spikes as well as data corruption.

The sata and power plugs on hot swapable drives are staggered so that as you insert them the pins get power in the right sequence and avoid putting too much power load all at once.

Its a great idea and someone should develop this - but a simple switch on the 5v or 12v could fry the drive or motherboard eventually as i dont think its how its designed to work..

Also need to make sure windows hasn't decided to create its swap file on it...

When a drive is hot swappable you can see the 'safely remove drive' button on the taskbar exactly the same as a thumbdrive etc. And you do need to use it before killing the power to that drive.

If you don't see that icon for all your internal SATA drives then you're not in hot-swap mode.

Gadgetman496

Actually I think I read on one of the product reviews that the BIOS needs to be set to AHCI for it to work correctly.

If it could be done successfully it might be a neat feature for case manufactures to include as an option in some of their cases?

ozmo

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Actually I think I read on one of the product reviews that the BIOS needs to be set to AHCI for it to work correctly.

If it could be done successfully it might be a neat feature for case manufactures to include as an option in some of their cases?

... Yes - id like a feature like that myself... But i would like the case to inform the os that the drive was going away and so give the os time do the safe removal etc .. Before the case then removed the power to that drive.. Rather than 2 manual steps.

Similar to way a ups notifies when pc is going to loose all power.

would save wear on seldom used drives reduce noise and save power- especially now a lot of people use small ssd as their boot drive and mechanical drives for storage.

SATA is only hot swappable if the controller, drivers and BIOS support it. AHCI support alone isn't enough but some motherboards may have an option for it in the BIOS. If you have a Safely Remove Hardware icon in the tray with your drives listed under it, then your machine does support hot swapping.

If the machine doesn't support hot swapping then generally you can power the drive on and scan for hardware changes in Device Manager to get it to show up, but you won't be able to remove it.

Gadgetman496

Came across These Guy's while searching & they do a selection of switches too, they even have a master switch which allows one person to control what drives are available on up to 200 machines for Lab or classroom environments. Way over the top for the normal user though

Overheal

What about Caviar Green drives? They don't spend a hell of a lot of time spun up, and are designed for power efficiency

Gadgetman496

Overheal wrote: »

What about Caviar Green drives? They don't spend a hell of a lot of time spun up, and are designed for power efficiency

That's true too I guess but I still prefer the idea of cold starting different OS's from separate drive rather than dual booting. And I want a new toy to mess about with too

ozmo

Overheal wrote: »

What about Caviar Green drives? They don't spend a hell of a lot of time spun up, and are designed for power efficiency

This is the solution i used for a while myself - but everytime you open file explorer or even save-as in word or something ... there is a pause of a few seconds while explorer spins up all the drives for who knows what reason- probably just so it knows they are still there.
Hmm. Would be a good project to make...

whizbang

Even Windows 98 supported hdd power down when idle.

There is plenty of free software out there to unmount drives when in use by windows. Also tricks to make windows think fixed drives are removable.

First thing to do is see if you mobo supports hotswap. - Power up machine with one drive's SATA lead disconnected, then when windows is up and running, plug the SATA lead and see if the drive pops up.