ConQueso 0 Posted July 24, 2003 I've got 3 HDDs, 1 span RAID, and 2 stripe RAID. My RAID adapter is a promise fasttrack 100, my OS XP SP1. The 1 span drive is a seagate and is my system C drive. The 2 striped drives are IBM, my D drive and I don't always use them. I was wondering if there was any easy and safe way (short of unplugging their power) to make it so that I can controll when the D drives only power down, or after a period of time they automatically power down without the C drive doing so. Will disabling the RAID stripe drive in the device manager work, or will this just make the OS ignore the drive while they continue to spin? The IBMs seem to be the loudest thing in my case (or at least most irritating). And I'd like to 1) not have to have them making noise unless I'm using them, and 2) extend their life-span. Any suggestions? Share this post Link to post
sapiens74 0 Posted July 24, 2003 IF you use removable drive bays you can. Share this post Link to post
Bursar 0 Posted July 24, 2003 I know Maxtor released a utility for some their drives that slowed them down a bit. This helped to keep the drives quiet. It's likely that IBM have a similar utility for some of their drives. But as you'll be flashing the firmware on the drive, make sure you have a full backup of your data first. You never know when things may go wrong! Share this post Link to post
ConQueso 0 Posted July 24, 2003 Hmm... Thanks for the feedback. So disabling the striped drive in device manager would not power down the hard drives? Could I get confirmation on this? Does the BIOS (epox 8rda+) possibly distinguish between which drives it shuts down? Or would it be just like the power management settings in windows? Also, is it safe to just yank the power cords (with computer off of course) out and leave the IDE cables in and run the computer that way? I don't want to pull the ide cables often. Share this post Link to post
Bursar 0 Posted July 24, 2003 Disabling it in Device Manager won't make any difference. The drives will still spin, you just won't be able to access them. If the PC is switched off when you plug and unplug the power cables, then that will be fine. Probably a bit of a faff having to shut down, reach in, (un)plug the drive, power up again - but it would do the trick. Might be worth getting a Y splitter and running that to both drives. You can then just yank out one power lead to kill both drives. Saves messing with two sets of power cables. Share this post Link to post
ConQueso 0 Posted July 24, 2003 Quote: Might be worth getting a Y splitter and running that to both drives. Great idea. That way I wont have to put any physical stress at all on the HDDs. Thanks. Share this post Link to post
ConQueso 0 Posted July 28, 2003 Anyone know if there is any hardware solution to this (besides a switch) such as a new RAID card? If I were to install a switch, which wire would be best to interrupt, or would it matter? And what should the switch be rated at? I'd have to find one of those switches with a guard over the top to avoid HD power down/up while on. It's incredible how much quieter the seagate is over the IBM drives. Share this post Link to post
