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Switching Power of hard drives ON and Off

F

Franc Zabkar

Jan 1, 1970
0
Bad idea. The heads should be parked first.

The OP understands that "the operation of those [+12V] switches should
only be done when the computer is off".

In any case, if power is removed from the servo, the kinetic energy of
the rotating platters will auto-park the heads.


- Franc Zabkar
 
J

James Sweet

Jan 1, 1970
0
Mark,

Have you forgotten that modern HD's autopark the moment the supply
power goes off. What is a BIG problem is powering off without flushing
the write cache. Windows is a real pig for this and is the reason why
it needs to be shutdown before turning off the power supply. The
lovely lost clusters left all over the HD can make a grown man cry, or
at least tear his hair out.

A*s*i*m*o*v


Every drive on the market has autoparked for at least 15 years now so as you
say that's certainly not an issue. The last drive I had to manually park was
a whopping 20 megabytes and was a 5.25" 2" high drive.

You're certainly right about the write cache though, fortunatly you can turn
this off if you desire, but it does provide a performance boost.
 
V

Vlad

Jan 1, 1970
0
From the discussions we had I conclude that installing a switch that
powers ON and OFF the +5 and the +12 is a very safe way to operate,
provided the switches are only operated when power is OFF.

I have looked at my BIOS and I can't see any indication that will
allowe me to power OFF any of my hard drives.

Let's face it,computers are made as cheap as possible and reliability
is expensive.
A hard drive lasts longer if it isn't running.

Thanks

Vlad
 
A

Asimov

Jan 1, 1970
0
"Vlad" bravely wrote to "All" (03 Apr 05 22:24:29)
--- on the heady topic of "Re: Switching Power of hard drives ON and Off"

This is an anecdote but my 1st year computer hardware teacher also
worked as a researcher for an industrial think-tank and I had to go to
his home once to deliver a late work assignment. While there he showed
me his workbench and to my amazement his pc was a rat's on a table
top. In front of it was a shelf of various harddrives with a switch
under each. When the pc had finished booting he would turn off the
particular HD switch and do whatever work or experiment. When he
needed to save something he would turn the drive back on. The pc was
still ON when he flipped the switch and the drive didn't miss a beat.
It was very eye-opening.


Vl> From: Vlad <[email protected]>
Vl> Xref: aeinews sci.electronics.repair:44897

Vl> From the discussions we had I conclude that installing a switch that
Vl> powers ON and OFF the +5 and the +12 is a very safe way to operate,
Vl> provided the switches are only operated when power is OFF.

Vl> I have looked at my BIOS and I can't see any indication that will
Vl> allowe me to power OFF any of my hard drives.

Vl> Let's face it,computers are made as cheap as possible and reliability
Vl> is expensive.
Vl> A hard drive lasts longer if it isn't running.

Vl> Thanks

Vl> Vlad

.... That was a fascinating period of time for electronics
 
V

Vlad

Jan 1, 1970
0
"Vlad" bravely wrote to "All" (03 Apr 05 22:24:29)
--- on the heady topic of "Re: Switching Power of hard drives ON and Off"

This is an anecdote but my 1st year computer hardware teacher also
worked as a researcher for an industrial think-tank and I had to go to
his home once to deliver a late work assignment. While there he showed
me his workbench and to my amazement his pc was a rat's on a table
top. In front of it was a shelf of various harddrives with a switch
under each. When the pc had finished booting he would turn off the
particular HD switch and do whatever work or experiment. When he
needed to save something he would turn the drive back on. The pc was
still ON when he flipped the switch and the drive didn't miss a beat.
It was very eye-opening.
Apparently Microsoft is working on this. It will be available on a new
Windows and is called" Power Manage something" and it will work on the
drives that are compatible with the scheme. They will get to work
after a few updates.
We can do it today with the drives connected to the USB port but as
you know they must be disabled before the power is switch OFF.
Regards

Vlad
 
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