Do you think turning off a drive extends its life?

I have a spare machine I leave on 24/7. I use one of the drives
frequently, but I almost never use the second drive. I considered
just unplugging the drive.

I saw this, but I have never tried it. The spare machine is XP.

http://www.pcuser.com.au/pcuser/hs2....25707200111942

Go to the Device Manager. Under Disk Drives, select the backup drive
and right click then disable.

When you want to use it, enable the drive.

Metspitzer wrote:

I have a spare machine I leave on 24/7. I use one of the drives
frequently, but I almost never use the second drive. I considered
just unplugging the drive. I saw this, but I have never tried it.
The spare machine is XP.

http://www.pcuser.com.au/pcuser/hs2....25707200111942

Go to the Device Manager. Under Disk Drives, select the backup drive
and right click then disable. When you want to use it, enable the
drive.

Why not just define or modify a power scheme that spins down the idle
drives after a few hours of non-use?

On Wed, 8 Jun 2011 21:44:27 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

Metspitzer wrote:

I have a spare machine I leave on 24/7. I use one of the drives
frequently, but I almost never use the second drive. I considered
just unplugging the drive. I saw this, but I have never tried it.
The spare machine is XP.

http://www.pcuser.com.au/pcuser/hs2....25707200111942

Go to the Device Manager. Under Disk Drives, select the backup drive
and right click then disable. When you want to use it, enable the
drive.

Why not just define or modify a power scheme that spins down the idle
drives after a few hours of non-use?

And probably just disabling it in device manager will just be in
software. I would imagine the drive would be powered up.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.

"Mark" wrote:
VanguardLH wrote:

Metspitzer wrote:

I have a spare machine I leave on 24/7. I use one of the drives
frequently, but I almost never use the second drive. I considered
just unplugging the drive. I saw this, but I have never tried it.
The spare machine is XP.


I have a similar situation with the 2nd hard drive used to contain
backup clones of the OS on the 1st hard drive. I passed the power
for each hard drive through a DPDT microswitch (wired as DPST).
When the power to a hard drive is OFF when the system is booted,
it is essentially not there, and the BIOS tells the OS that there is just
one hard drive. (Of course, power changes must be made when the
entire system is OFF.) These microswitches fit neatly under the plastic
fascia of my Dell desktop PC, and the toggle handles are reachable
with an unfolded paper clip extended through an air intake. The 1/4"
barrels of the switches fit neatly through the ventilation holes of the
chassis, so no drilling or filing was necessary for their installation.

I believe this scheme would not work if there are short cuts that
explicitly name a hard drive, as the names (e.g. C:, D interchange
when hard drives are interchanged. But as long as there are no such
short cuts (that get used), the scheme works well.

*TimDaniels*

On Thu, 9 Jun 2011 10:19:16 -0700, "Timothy Daniels"
wrote:

"Mark" wrote:
VanguardLH wrote:

Metspitzer wrote:

I have a spare machine I leave on 24/7. I use one of the drives
frequently, but I almost never use the second drive. I considered
just unplugging the drive. I saw this, but I have never tried it.
The spare machine is XP.


I have a similar situation with the 2nd hard drive used to contain
backup clones of the OS on the 1st hard drive. I passed the power
for each hard drive through a DPDT microswitch (wired as DPST).
When the power to a hard drive is OFF when the system is booted,
it is essentially not there, and the BIOS tells the OS that there is just
one hard drive. (Of course, power changes must be made when the
entire system is OFF.) These microswitches fit neatly under the plastic
fascia of my Dell desktop PC, and the toggle handles are reachable
with an unfolded paper clip extended through an air intake. The 1/4"
barrels of the switches fit neatly through the ventilation holes of the
chassis, so no drilling or filing was necessary for their installation.

I believe this scheme would not work if there are short cuts that
explicitly name a hard drive, as the names (e.g. C:, D interchange
when hard drives are interchanged. But as long as there are no such
short cuts (that get used), the scheme works well.

*TimDaniels*

In the past I had an idea to fill up all my external bays with
blinking lights and toggle switches and knobs (that go to 11) that do
nothing.

I could maybe hook a couple of them to the hard drives and make them
useful.

On Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:06:36 -0400, Metspitzer rearranged some electrons
to say:


In the past I had an idea to fill up all my external bays with blinking
lights and toggle switches and knobs (that go to 11) that do nothing.


Why?

On Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:06:36 -0400, Metspitzer rearranged some electrons
to say:


In the past I had an idea to fill up all my external bays with blinking
lights and toggle switches and knobs (that go to 11) that do nothing.


Why?

On Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:41:58 +0000 (UTC), david
wrote:

On Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:06:36 -0400, Metspitzer rearranged some electrons
to say:


In the past I had an idea to fill up all my external bays with blinking
lights and toggle switches and knobs (that go to 11) that do nothing.


Why?

So it looks like the special effects from Blakes 7?
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.

On Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:41:58 +0000 (UTC), david
wrote:

On Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:06:36 -0400, Metspitzer rearranged some electrons
to say:


In the past I had an idea to fill up all my external bays with blinking
lights and toggle switches and knobs (that go to 11) that do nothing.


Why?

For the flash factor. I was kidding of course, but you have to admit
dials, switches, lights and gauges would make pretty funny gag.

Make the front of the computer look like the cockpit of a plane.

david wrote:

Metspitzer:

In the past I had an idea to fill up all my external bays with blinking
lights and toggle switches and knobs (that go to 11) that do nothing.

Why?

He wants it to look like the Seaview that had huge panels of useless
light panels (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKU0M9x0fCo, 10-second
mark) that threw off showers of sparks everytime the submarine listed
violently from side to side. Now Metz needs to get a sparker toy
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAHGrReKfUI), a plasma ball
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKIJKrl35as), or a tesla coil
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdrqdW4Miao).