Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
External drives normally shut down or go to sleep after some period of inactivity, or when the computer is turned off. If not you may have to manually turn them off as well.
I just installed two external Firewire hard drive cases with two hard drives. When I shut off my system the drives keep running and they don't power down when my PC is on after 15 minutes-the setting I use for turning the hard drives off.
Is this normal for a Firewire external drive or is there something I need to do to get them to power down.
I can shut them off when not in use but it would be more convenient if they just turned off according to my power schedule.
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I'm a huge fan of external drives. In fact, I own three of them now.
But, being the kind of guy I am, I leave my computers - all of them - running all the time. If you don't, what you want to do depends on exactly what your external drive does when it gets "bored".
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First, to my knowledge, the Windows power schedule for disk drive shutdown really only applies to internal drives. And it certainly only applies while the computer is running. If the computer's powered down, it has no way to tell the external drives "it's time to shut down now".
That's why I say it kind of depends on what your external drives do when they get "bored", as I call it.
You didn't indicate what brand of drive you're using, so I'll mention my Maxtors. Even with the power on, the drives themselves automatically turn off after some period of inactivity. I believe that's just part of the drive's configuration, and not something that's controlled by the Windows power settings. In fact, in the morning when I fire up my MP3 player for the first time (all my MP3's are on an external drive), it takes a few extra seconds for the drive to "wake up", and spin up to speed before the files can be accessed. If you've ever noticed such a delay after not using the drive for a while, that's probably what's happening. I've also actually heard the drive spin up, if the room is otherwise quiet.
If your drive does that, then personally, I'd be totally happy just leaving it powered on, even if your computer is not. The big power sink for a drive it the motor that spins it, and the actuator that moves the disk head. If it's spun down due to inactivity, it's using just a little power to keep the circuitry alive and listening for requests, but not much more.
Now, if you're uncomfortable with that, or you're certain that your drive does not spin down when it's not been used for a while, then as far as I know your only real recourse is the power switch on the drive itself.
Article C2573 - February 27, 2006 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
September 20, 2006 8:57 PM
It's in control panel :-). (Start->Settings->Control Panel)
October 1, 2006 1:10 AM
I got a maxtor a usb2.0 300GB 3100 i believe the model before the one touches. It came with no manual or drivers just plug in and play as the saying goes, i'm currently just turning it on and off at the powerpoint as it seems to have no auto shutoff or powerdown and makes a fair humm when everything else is off, so i'm unsure should I be doing something to 'ready' it for shutdown? am i quickly setting this drive up for failure? It does take a second or two to shutoff once i disconnect the power, does anyone know if they use capacitors or some stored power to shut itself down without harm to itself or data?
April 9, 2007 3:42 AM
You can shut down your computer in a particular
time(Like a sleep timer in TV) for that U need to write code in Visual C++ (MFC).. and the API to shutdown system is ExitWindows(); search in MSDN you can get more....
you ca post your queries to u.karthi@gmail.com always 4 U from MKU
December 23, 2009 3:03 PM
hello
I have hdd Westerd Digital 15EADS (1500GB) in external enclosure connected via usb to my pc (win xp system). I read about this series of hdd (caviar green) and I know that this model have something like spinning down however I read about jumper settings and it looks that my model have it disabled (no jumpers from beginning). I also turn off saving energy on my usb controller.
Often after few minutes of inactivity I see that hdd is turn off or slowing down so much that I don't feel any vibration at enclosure of hdd. Hdd is then still visible in "explorer" and I can even see structures of main catalogs, when I go "deeper" to some catalogue hdd speed up so I have 2 questions regarding this - is disk only slowing down (to some low speed rpm) or just totally stops (0rpm) ? and how about lifetime after such operations - is this good for hdd or bad ?
thank you for answer and sorry for my poor english :)
regards
Pawel
24-Dec-2009
November 24, 2011 6:38 AM
External drives are normally supplied with a drive software utility, This usually has functions such as turning any external lights on or off, disk test and ability to set a "time period after inactivity" which puts the drive in sleep mode. Seagate external drives are supplied in this way.