How to stop a hard drive from spinning.

mm · Oct 11, 2007

I am running win98SE but with a mobo that is considerably newer. I
have the energy saver in the bios set to stop the hard drive from
spinning after 15? minutes or so, but afaict, it never stops.

Is there a windows or dos instruction that will stop the hard drive
when it's not required to do anything?

If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM

thanatoid · Oct 12, 2007

Re: How to stop a hard drive from spinning.

mm <NOPSAMmm2005@bigfoot.com> wrote in
news:mngsg3da214n2sdvb1ra1994qf6ec07l15@4ax.com:

> I am running win98SE but with a mobo that is considerably
> newer. I have the energy saver in the bios set to stop the
> hard drive from spinning after 15? minutes or so, but
> afaict, it never stops.
>
> Is there a windows or dos instruction that will stop the
> hard drive when it's not required to do anything?
>
>
> If you are inclined to email me
> for some reason, remove NOPSAM

>

I don't KNOW, but I doubt energy waste is a valid reason for
doing this. How much AC can that little motor use?

And HD's should not stop and start all the time. It's bad for
them. Since MS in their infinite wisdom offered that option, I
had played with it for a while, and now just have it set to off
and that's all, folks.

If you REALLY want to do it, Google for "HD utilities". It will
probably be a long search, though. What you want does exist, but
so do thousands of other HD utils.

PCR · Oct 12, 2007

Re: How to stop a hard drive from spinning.

mm wrote:
| I am running win98SE but with a mobo that is considerably newer. I
| have the energy saver in the bios set to stop the hard drive from
| spinning after 15? minutes or so, but afaict, it never stops.
|
| Is there a windows or dos instruction that will stop the hard drive
| when it's not required to do anything?

The setting for it is at... "Control Panel, Power Management, Power
Schemes tab". There's a dropdown box there labeled: "Turn off hard
disks".

HOWEVER, I find myself in agreement with thanatoid-- don't do it!

Mine used to be set to turn off after 20 minutes. Who knows whether it
led to the crash of my 1st hard drive after 1 year? And that put my head
through the ceiling!

If the machine begins to sleep or hibernate that way or by pressing the
sleep button, I'm thinking just a little shake of the mouse or
accidental press of a key may begin to wake it-- before the motor has
fully spun down. That could be the worst part of it!

| If you are inclined to email me
| for some reason, remove NOPSAM

--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp@netzero.net

mm · Oct 15, 2007

Re: How to stop a hard drive from spinning.

On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:23:33 -0400, "PCR" <pcrrcp@netzero.net> wrote:

>mm wrote:
>| I am running win98SE but with a mobo that is considerably newer. I
>| have the energy saver in the bios set to stop the hard drive from
>| spinning after 15? minutes or so, but afaict, it never stops.
>|
>| Is there a windows or dos instruction that will stop the hard drive
>| when it's not required to do anything?
>
>The setting for it is at... "Control Panel, Power Management, Power
>Schemes tab". There's a dropdown box there labeled: "Turn off hard
>disks".
>
>HOWEVER, I find myself in agreement with thanatoid-- don't do it!
>
>Mine used to be set to turn off after 20 minutes. Who knows whether it
>led to the crash of my 1st hard drive after 1 year? And that put my head
>through the ceiling!

What would you say if I said thbat this was only to be used for a day
or so. I have a hard drive that is giving a lot of errors, and I
wanted to stop it from running as much as possible, and just start it
up for the time it takes to copy everything from it to another drive.

Would stopping it from spinning when not being used give me a few more
hours, or is it only the moving of the heads that causes problems, not
the spinning part?

Thanks.

>If the machine begins to sleep or hibernate that way or by pressing the
>sleep button, I'm thinking just a little shake of the mouse or
>accidental press of a key may begin to wake it-- before the motor has
>fully spun down. That could be the worst part of it!
>

If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM

Galen Somerville · Oct 15, 2007

Re: How to stop a hard drive from spinning.

"mm" <NOPSAMmm2005@bigfoot.com> wrote in message news:6lu7h3peuutugjtm83dgi8ard73239esbm@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:23:33 -0400, "PCR" <pcrrcp@netzero.net> wrote:
>
> >mm wrote:
> >| I am running win98SE but with a mobo that is considerably newer. I
> >| have the energy saver in the bios set to stop the hard drive from
> >| spinning after 15? minutes or so, but afaict, it never stops.
> >|
> >| Is there a windows or dos instruction that will stop the hard drive
> >| when it's not required to do anything?
> >
> >The setting for it is at... "Control Panel, Power Management, Power
> >Schemes tab". There's a dropdown box there labeled: "Turn off hard
> >disks".
> >
> >HOWEVER, I find myself in agreement with thanatoid-- don't do it!
> >
> >Mine used to be set to turn off after 20 minutes. Who knows whether it
> >led to the crash of my 1st hard drive after 1 year? And that put my head
> >through the ceiling!
>
> What would you say if I said thbat this was only to be used for a day
> or so. I have a hard drive that is giving a lot of errors, and I
> wanted to stop it from running as much as possible, and just start it
> up for the time it takes to copy everything from it to another drive.
>
> Would stopping it from spinning when not being used give me a few more
> hours, or is it only the moving of the heads that causes problems, not
> the spinning part?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>
> >If the machine begins to sleep or hibernate that way or by pressing the
> >sleep button, I'm thinking just a little shake of the mouse or
> >accidental press of a key may begin to wake it-- before the motor has
> >fully spun down. That could be the worst part of it!
> >
>
> If you are inclined to email me
> for some reason, remove NOPSAM

Don't play around. Open the case and unplug the bad hard drive until you are ready to do the
copying.

Galen

MEB · Oct 15, 2007

|
| Don't play around. Open the case and unplug the bad hard drive until you
are ready to do the
| copying.
|
| Galen
|

AGREED! mm is playing a losing game trying to second guess a failing hard
drive. Attempting to use something to stop the drive, which itself may make
that the last time it runs.

Backup or copy the files NOW before it completely fails so you can run
diagnostics on the drive. Every time the computer shuts down is one more
time the drive may quit completely. Every time the drive is accessed, is one
more chance that may be its final time.

--
MEB
http://peoplescounsel.orgfree.com
________

PCR · Oct 16, 2007

Re: How to stop a hard drive from spinning.

mm wrote:
| On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:23:33 -0400, "PCR" <pcrrcp@netzero.net> wrote:
|
|>mm wrote:
|>| I am running win98SE but with a mobo that is considerably newer. I
|>| have the energy saver in the bios set to stop the hard drive from
|>| spinning after 15? minutes or so, but afaict, it never stops.
|>|
|>| Is there a windows or dos instruction that will stop the hard drive
|>| when it's not required to do anything?
|>
|>The setting for it is at... "Control Panel, Power Management, Power
|>Schemes tab". There's a dropdown box there labeled: "Turn off hard
|>disks".
|>
|>HOWEVER, I find myself in agreement with thanatoid-- don't do it!
|>
|>Mine used to be set to turn off after 20 minutes. Who knows whether it
|>led to the crash of my 1st hard drive after 1 year? And that put my
|>head through the ceiling!
|
| What would you say if I said thbat this was only to be used for a day
| or so. I have a hard drive that is giving a lot of errors, and I
| wanted to stop it from running as much as possible, and just start it
| up for the time it takes to copy everything from it to another drive.
|
| Would stopping it from spinning when not being used give me a few more
| hours, or is it only the moving of the heads that causes problems, not
| the spinning part?

I agree with thanatoid, Somerville & MEB on this issue.

However, if you present me with a notarized legal paper absolving me of
all fault-- I WILL give you permission to do it just once more. Then, as
soon as you start spinning it again-- copy your files off of it
immediately!

| Thanks.
|
|
|
|>If the machine begins to sleep or hibernate that way or by pressing
|>the sleep button, I'm thinking just a little shake of the mouse or
|>accidental press of a key may begin to wake it-- before the motor has
|>fully spun down. That could be the worst part of it!
|>
|
| If you are inclined to email me
| for some reason, remove NOPSAM

--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp@netzero.net

How to stop a hard drive from spinning.

mm

Guest

thanatoid

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PCR

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mm

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Galen Somerville

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MEB

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PCR

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