For some days now I am the proud owner of two models of the above mentioned mass system. I’ve packed them into an external case and attached it to our server which among others does automatic backups of our computers.
As the server is powered 24/7 so is the external hard drive and I fear that this among the energy aspect will dramatically shorten down the life of the WD.
So I am looking for a way to power down the motor of the HDD via software (the server works automatically and I dont want to press some button or pull a cable every time) via software. I got one drive attached via SATA/ESATA and one working on an USB connection.
So far I have tried the safely remove function as well as setting the drive offline in the hardware manager/hard disk manager. Even pulling the USB cable doesn’t work (I cant try the SATA as I am working remotely on it right now)
Is there any tool available to perform the desired function?
Found a program named HDDScan (under Features - IDE Features)
But the question remaining for me is:
If you are using a harddrive for only short times in long intervals, what is better considering mechanical abrasion: Shutting it down or letting it run 24/7?
Thanks for your answer. I tried using the energy settings but unfortunately that didnt work for me. But now I can shut the drive down using the program mentioned above. As the program also supports command line opions in a very cool way, automation would be easy.
the only question left for me is the question whether shutting down the drive or letting it running is actually better for it if the HDD is only used on rare occasions…
Often times leaving the drive on all the time is better for its longetivity than starting and stopping it all the time, so if that is all you are worried about, leave it be – the drive will keep spinning just fine for 5 years or more. If you want to save power, then go for it, just make sure it isn’t starting and stopping every 5 minutes as this will shorten the life of the drive.
Alright, Thank you. Ill see to how I am going to implement that. Are there any lines of guidances after how many minutes of inactivity you should shut a drive down?
