Hdd Switch

[Biober]

hello,

i would like to know what you guys think about this or if its possible or not to add a switch to an HDD power cable so i could easly turn on and off the HDD, i think is something that can be done but since i havent seen anything on the web im not so sure about it.

and i dont know what kind of switch could go in there also, maybe if its possible someone could tell me.

 

[davenn]

hi there
welcome to EP

i would like to know what you guys think about this or if its possible or not to add a switch to an HDD power cable so i could easly turn on and off the HDD, i think is something that can be done but since i havent seen anything on the web im not so sure about it.

before thinking about doing hot switching, you need to make sure your HDD can be hot switched, otherwise it is likely to have a short lifespan
Hot switching is the connecting or disconnecting of either power or data cables or both

but before that
why do you want to do this .... assuming you wanted to disconnect the power but leave the data cable connected ??


Dave

 

[AnalogKid]

How old are the drive and the computer?

ak

 

[Gryd3]

Fill us in on some more details regarding your wants...
You can use a switch, or a button, or whatever you want... but keep in mind most desktop power supplies provide 12V and 5V (Sometimes even 3.3V) to the HDD. You will ideally want to switch all the power rails off.
Additionally, doing this on a live disk which is not capable AND configured to be hot-swap, hot-plug, etc will cause data loss/corruption of anything from a file to an entire file system! It would be best to only switch this while the power is off on the machine.
Alternative options include buying a 'Hot-Swap' drive bay for a 2.5 or 3.5 drive, or simply using a USB enclosure for your HDD.

 

[davenn]

Additionally, doing this on a live disk which is not capable AND configured to be hot-swap, hot-plug, etc will cause data loss/corruption of anything from a file to an entire file system! It would be best to only switch this while the power is off on the machine.

yeah, I tried to impress that upon him

 

[Biober]

Thanks for replying,

well i got 2 hdd storage drives 1 ssd for the system and 1 for the day stuff, so 3 hhds start to make some noise and most of the time i dont even need then in a daily basis (and probably adds to the chance for them to die) so i was thinking in add the switch on the power of those hdds so i could torn them on and off.

my board is a Big Bang-Xpowers II my HDD are Western Green power got, they have 2 to 4 years 1 got a 5tb and a 4tb.

on my board i got a ssd controller named Asmedia 1061 with 4 ports, im going to be honest i dont know how it works but seam it works just like if it was an usb, i can connect/disconnect stuff to them when my pc is running.

so i was thinking in put those 2 hdds in that controller that way if i turn the power on it will recognise it and add the hdd to the list just like if it was a external usb drive.

and before power off, i can do the same as an external just eject it and then power off (with the switch i was thinking).

i dont know if this is bad for hdds or not so i am opened to advices.

thanks for replying.

 

[AnalogKid]

Each drive has a power profile. You can set the ones you don't use often to turn off after xx minutes of inactivity.

ak

 

[Biober]

if you talk about the power option in the control panel, at first i was thinking would be nice to use it but the problem is that whenever i am in an application that i use the open in it will read all the drives and ends up giving me some seconds of delay before i can do anything gets a bit annoying.

 

[davenn]

well i got 2 hdd storage drives 1 ssd for the system and 1 for the day stuff, so 3 hhds start to make some noise

I have 5 HDD's hanging off my mobo, 3 x 2TB a 1.5TB and a 1TB, they are as quiet as a mouse .... seriously, you cannot hear them
4 of the drives are direct off the mobo sata ports and the other is a 2TB USB drive

so i was thinking in put those 2 hdds in that controller that way if i turn the power on it will recognise it and add the hdd to the list just like if it was a external usb drive.

Only if as commented earlier if they had a USB interface. Again, as I said earlier, you cannot switch power to them unless they are hot swappable types

 

[Biober]

well i dont hear them making noise like the old ones but the spining makes a lot of noise, and when i purchased my last hdds i noticed that they now do a lot more noise when spining i dont know if have something to do with the space capacity or if they changed something.

but my front panel where i got all my hdds are not covered got those plates with holes, i covered all the front part with a towel and lol i lost a lot of noise so i guess i will cover the inside with some sponge to remove a bit of that noise.

what brand do you use?, thanks

Only if as commented earlier if they had a USB interface. Again, as I said earlier, you cannot switch power to them unless they are hot swappable types

so a way to test this, could i connect the hdd power cable to the atx supply when the pc is running without any incident? cause i can connect the power if i want and no problem like i said looks like if it was a usb no crash nothing? or there are other way to know if its hot swappable of not ?

thanks

 

[davenn]

but the spining makes a lot of noise,

wow really ?? ... not a peep out of mine

but my front panel where i got all my hdds are not covered got those plates with holes,

my PC is a mini tower on the desk beside me, doesn't even have a side cover fitted
I'm a fan of Western Digital have always had a good run from their drives

so a way to test this, could i connect the hdd power cable to the atx supply when the pc is running without any incident? cause i can connect the power if i want and no problem like i said looks like if it was a usb no crash nothing?

hot swappable or not, don't do that ... obviously, if the drive is in read/write mode
don't do it unless you are willing to risk loosing the drive due to failure ... ie. don't do it with a drive that has unback upped data

or there are other way to know if its hot swappable of not ?

ummm good Q ... maybe by model number and seeing what the manufacturer says about it

 

[Biober]

yeah i am getting that out of the table, if wasnt the noise i was satisfied but since i am having that wosh sound like a plane that is going to take off lol, but as i said i will try to cover a bit more inside the case to lower the noise since i tested with the towel it helps something.

the one i noticed rigth away when i purchased it was the 5tb Western makes a lot more noise then the others with 4 3 2 tb.

most of my hdd are western since back in the days they were the best ones, i kept with them, still they arent perfect some died but thats normal with any company and they had good prices in the past atm seagate is giving better prices at least around here.

thanks for the help guys specially Davenn.

 

[(*steve*)]

In the past I've had quite a few hard drives running at once. You should be able to find a tool to tell the drive to spin down after some period of inactivity. I reset that to make things a little quieter and to reduce the stress on drives that had to be on, but were often accessed only once a week or so.

Beware operating systems that decide to regularly talk to drives just for the heck of it. Windows is a bit like this (or it was when I last used it to run a server).