Powering down a HDD [Newb Question]

[AVT]

Hi,

Since I've now moved to SSD, I'm looking to move my music off of it and onto a larger hard drive.

I'd like to make sure the HDD isn't spinning (and causing annoying vibration noise) unless the files on it are actively being accessed.

Is there any simple way to do this?

Thanks!

 

[XS Janus]

Under advanced power options in Vista/W7 there is an option "power down hdds after xx minutes"
When you enable it hdd's that aren't accessed in a set number of minutes will spin down to sleep mode.

Works OK, I even use it to power down my Raid5 array that sits on a 3ware controller.

 

[AVT]

Under advanced power options in Vista/W7 there is an option "power down hdds after xx minutes"
When you enable it hdd's that aren't accessed in a set number of minutes will spin down to sleep mode.

Works OK, I even use it to power down my Raid5 array that sits on a 3ware controller.

Is this specific to Windows or the HDD? If I'm using the PC (not idle), but the HDD isn't in use, would it power down?

Also, is there a way to configure this on a per-HDD basis? I don't ever want my SSD powering off.

 

[Elledan]

Is this specific to Windows or the HDD? If I'm using the PC (not idle), but the HDD isn't in use, would it power down?

Also, is there a way to configure this on a per-HDD basis? I don't ever want my SSD powering off.

It's a general option in Windows, but spin-down isn't a Windows-specific feature. It's a command sent to the HDD.

Also, there's no real performance penalty when using this option with SSDs. Heck, I'm not even sure it'd apply or the command will do anything except perhaps put it into low-power mode or so.