A Good Little Utility to Power Down an External HDD When Not in Use?

[p_l]

What's a good little utility, application or program to power down an external HDD when not in use? I'd like it to spin back up automatically when used, of course, but not stay on 24/7.

[Squash]

I use "USB Safely Remove"; started using it several years ago on an XP machine when its "Safely Remove Hardware" icon mysteriously disappeared.

Unfortunately, it's not free. When I bought it, it came with a lifetime license for $15, but apparently they've recently moved to a subscription model where it's ordinarily $20/year but is on sale today for 30% off (I just checked their webpage). They also have a lifetime option available.

I've never had any hassles running it on several different computers, just plugged in the original license key they sent me.

It's got several neat features that you can read about on their page. They recently added the ability to turn off external USB drives when you disconnect them (apparently XP would do that for you, but not Vista or Win7, according to the info on the site).

I've tested the power-down feature on my Win7 x64 machine and it does work as advertised with my 1TB WD external USB 2 drive. I can eject, power-down, and power it back up from the Safely Remove tray icon.

But there may be some good free alternatives out there, too. I don't know.

http://safelyremove.com/blog/en/usbsafelyremove-4-4-final

edit: By the way, this doesn't work with eSata drives (you didn't specify, so I assumed you were talking about USB). Fortunately my Fantom eSata drive has an on/off switch. My WD USB doesn't.

[p_l]

Thanks, I've tried the trial version and as far as I can tell, it allows you to manually select an external HDD to completely start or stop with one click, and consequently it disappears from your list of drives in Windows Explorer.

But what I'm looking for is something that would automatically spin down the external HDD when it's not in actual use, while still keeping it connected and visible in Windows. I have a Seagate external USB HDD connected to a computer on my home network which I use mainly for long-term storage. I want to be able to see it and access it, but I would like it to spin down when I'm not actually using it, which is most of the time. I don't want it spinning 24/7. I'd like it to have it programmed to spin down after a half hour of inactivity, for example, yet still be visible in Windows so I can access it when I need it from time to time, then spin down again.

Does such a utility or program exist?

[p_l]

To answer my own question again, in case anyone comes across this thread looking for the same thing, I finally found it. It's called HDDScan for Windows version 3.3. What kind of freaked me out at first was that there's one of those malware fake HDD scans that goes by the very similar name of HDDScan. To avoid getting that wrong one, be careful to get the right one from majorgeeks.com or from the developer's own page:

http://majorgeeks.com/HDDScan_for_Windows_d6321.html

http://hddscan.com/


Be sure it looks like this, and it's quite easy to use.

1. Start the program (run hddscan.exe). Obviously, you should keep the whole program folder, which includes the hddscan.exe file, on your C: drive or one that won't be spinning down.




2. Select your drive on the left, hit the big button in the middle, and choose Features > IDE Features.

3. Under Power Management, move the slider to set the Idle Timer for how soon you want the drive to spin down after being idle. Click Set.

[bendixG15]

And how does it ... spin up ??

I see that it has a Spinup button.

Do you manually have to tell it to start spinning or does it start when you call for a program on that drive ??

[p_l]

Even when spun down, the drive is always visible in Windows, even over a network. Whenever you access it, it automatically spins up. It then automatically spins down after the selected idle time.

The Spindown and Spinup buttons in the bottom right corner are manual commands.

[Spixe]

Just want to say THANKS p_I for the info, just what I was looking for, perfecto~~~

Unfortunately, after clicking set, none of the settings stayed. So basically, doesn't work anymore...

[gregalan]

NM.... didn't notice you said "networked" drive in later post.

[p_l]

Obviously, you should keep the whole program folder, which includes the hddscan.exe file, on your C: drive or one that won't be spinning down.

Are you sure you did this, on the computer the HDD is attached to?

[Spixe]

Yep, of course p_I. And gregalan, in my situation, the drives are not networked, but that didn't matter, power options setting the disks to shut off after some time doesn't work either.