Thread: Western Digital "My Book" - Questions
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Old October 13th 06, 03:38 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
bxf
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Posts: 18
Default Western Digital "My Book" - Questions
wrote:
Hello!

I canīt find any information about the standby-mode of the Western
Digital My Book - harddrive!

Can it be turned off by software?

Yes, but...

You can use "Safely Remove Hardware" or the Western Digital Spindown
Utility (download from WD site) to turn off the drive. Unfortunately,
neither of these will prevent the drive from powering up when you
reboot. If you use "safely Remove Hardware" or STOP with the Spindown
Utility, the drive will stay off until you unplug/replug the USB cable,
or until you hit the power button on the drive, or until you reboot.
You can also use the utility to put the drive into STANDBY, in which
case it spins down but it will automatically wake up when it is
referenced (e.g. Invoking Explorer).

I could only find a lot of reviews talking about a standby-mode after 5
minutes!

But I donīt want to turn of the HDīs motor! (for a longer life of the
HD)

For what it's worth, WD says that although spinning up and down
repeatedly DOES present the drive with greater wear and tear than if
it's continuously spinning, this is true only up to a point, and the
drive's design is such that it is expected to spin down several times a
day. I think I saw this somewhere in the WD FAQ.


I also couldnt find any information about the automatic power-on-mode
of the HD!
Can the HD be configured this way that it doesnt power on every time
the computer boots?

And can it be turned off manually?

The only thing I've noticed, that may be of some relevance, is this: if
under Device Manager Disk Drives Western Digital Properties
Policies you select "Optimize for quick removal", then, by definition,
you can remove your MYBOOK simply by hitting the power button on the
drive. If you do this, the drive will NOT power up when you RESTART
Windows. It will, however, power up if you shut down completely and
then reboot. Other than this, I find it necessary to pull out the USB
cable from my machine when I want the drive to stay OFF.

By the way, I understand that for USB drives there is no performance
sacrifice by selecting "Optimize for quick removal" as opposed to
"Optimize fo performance".