External Hard Drive Question

[milanlad]

I have two external USB 3.5" hard drive enclosures, one is an ICYBOX and the other is an AKASA. They are attached to a PC with runs 24/7.

Is it possible somehow for the hard drives to spin down if there is no activity after a certain length of time?

Thanks

[dave87]

theoretically yes, it has been done (power options in windows should do it), although unless they are near by you when you sleep, id have them spun up for faster response times personally.

Dave

[Nick F]

You can set a time period of inactivity for USB devices to then shutdown, it should be in the advanced power options.

[milanlad]

You can set a time period of inactivity for USB devices to then shutdown, it should be in the advanced power options.

I tried this but the drive does not spin down. I also noticed that the internal C: drive did not spin down either!!

[Mikey]

Is it only 'special' more modern drives that are able to spin down?

I thought I read somewhere that trying to spin down a drive that doesn't support power saving can damage it ?

A few years ago I set my Western Digtal drive to power down / spin down after about an hour. But ocassionally when it powered down it would start randomly clicking, so I disabled that and backed everything up etc and all was well. But then much later on I set it to spin down again, and then returned home later to hear a 'click click click click' from upstairs - and surprise surprise the HD has died.

I'm scared to use the power savings mode / spin down now on my new drive !