Software disable a few hard drives that aren't used much

To keep spinning wear down can I software disable platter disks used once a
month?

I've been disconnecting the power cable which is a PITA.

In article ,
says...

To keep spinning wear down can I software disable platter disks used once a
month?

I've been disconnecting the power cable which is a PITA.

Put the drive in an external enclosure has an On/Off switch would work.
No need to keep unused drive inside system itself.

On 10/31/2019 1:18 PM, pjp wrote:
In article ,
says...

To keep spinning wear down can I software disable platter disks used once a
month?

I've been disconnecting the power cable which is a PITA.

Put the drive in an external enclosure has an On/Off switch would work.
No need to keep unused drive inside system itself.

I replaced one of my 5.25 drive bays with one of these units.

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16817998020

Now I can insert a 3.5 inch SATA drive into the PC when needed or leave
one plugged in but turn off the power to the drive bay. Makes swapping
drives easy when cloning my internal drives or when doing backups.

Guadalupe wrote:

To keep spinning wear down can I software disable platter disks used once a
month?

Find the disk number X, e.g. with "get-disk"


then in an elevated powershell

set-disk X -isOffline $true​

where X is the disk you want to ignore

said thus to which I respond:

To keep spinning wear down can I software disable platter disks used once a
month?

Find the disk number X, e.g. with "get-disk"


then in an elevated powershell

set-disk X -isOffline $true​

where X is the disk you want to ignore

ver
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17763.805]

'get-disk' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

set-disk
'set-disk' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/pow...?view=win10-ps

powershell
get-disk

1 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567891 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
2 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567892 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
0 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567893 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
3 Generic- C... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
6 Generic- M... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
5 Generic- S... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
4 Generic- S... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW

I need to figure out which is NOT the boot disk to run
set-disk X -isOffline $true​

I can't tell which disk is which.
The SATA numbers on the motherboard are different than these.
I disconnect one.
I try again and get the same answer (it must be in memory).
I kill & restart powershell.
Same thing.
It thinks there are 3 disks but only two are connected now.
There must be a better way to tell which disk is which.
I can see where they're connected to the motherboard.
I'll disconnect all but one and reboot.

How can I tell which disk is which disk?

Guadalupe wrote:
said thus to which I respond:

To keep spinning wear down can I software disable platter disks used once a
month?
Find the disk number X, e.g. with "get-disk"


then in an elevated powershell

set-disk X -isOffline $true​

where X is the disk you want to ignore

ver
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17763.805]

'get-disk' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

set-disk
'set-disk' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/pow...?view=win10-ps

powershell
get-disk

1 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567891 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
2 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567892 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
0 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567893 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
3 Generic- C... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
6 Generic- M... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
5 Generic- S... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
4 Generic- S... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW

I need to figure out which is NOT the boot disk to run
set-disk X -isOffline $true​

I can't tell which disk is which.
The SATA numbers on the motherboard are different than these.
I disconnect one.
I try again and get the same answer (it must be in memory).
I kill & restart powershell.
Same thing.
It thinks there are 3 disks but only two are connected now.
There must be a better way to tell which disk is which.
I can see where they're connected to the motherboard.
I'll disconnect all but one and reboot.

How can I tell which disk is which disk?

You can set a disk "offline" using Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) GUI.

https://i.postimg.cc/rw1t6V5W/offline.gif

The OS remembers this, and after a reboot, the disk which
is offline, will still be offline, until you set it
"Online" again via the menu.

Paul

Paul wrote:
Guadalupe wrote:
said thus to which I respond:

To keep spinning wear down can I software disable platter disks used
once a
month?
Find the disk number X, e.g. with "get-disk"


then in an elevated powershell

set-disk X -isOffline $true​

where X is the disk you want to ignore

ver
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17763.805]

'get-disk' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

set-disk
'set-disk' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/pow...?view=win10-ps


powershell
get-disk

1 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567891 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
2 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567892 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
0 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567893 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
3 Generic- C... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
6 Generic- M... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
5 Generic- S... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
4 Generic- S... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW

I need to figure out which is NOT the boot disk to run
set-disk X -isOffline $true​

I can't tell which disk is which.
The SATA numbers on the motherboard are different than these.
I disconnect one.
I try again and get the same answer (it must be in memory).
I kill & restart powershell.
Same thing.
It thinks there are 3 disks but only two are connected now.
There must be a better way to tell which disk is which.
I can see where they're connected to the motherboard.
I'll disconnect all but one and reboot.

How can I tell which disk is which disk?

You can set a disk "offline" using Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) GUI.

https://i.postimg.cc/rw1t6V5W/offline.gif

The OS remembers this, and after a reboot, the disk which
is offline, will still be offline, until you set it
"Online" again via the menu.

Paul

I don't think that kills the power though.

On 01/11/2019 00.00, Guadalupe wrote:
said thus to which I respond:

To keep spinning wear down can I software disable platter disks used once a
month?

Find the disk number X, e.g. with "get-disk"


then in an elevated powershell

set-disk X -isOffline $true​

where X is the disk you want to ignore

ver
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17763.805]

'get-disk' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

set-disk
'set-disk' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/pow...?view=win10-ps

powershell
get-disk

1 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567891 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
2 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567892 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
0 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567893 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
3 Generic- C... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
6 Generic- M... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
5 Generic- S... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
4 Generic- S... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW

I need to figure out which is NOT the boot disk to run
set-disk X -isOffline $true​

I can't tell which disk is which.
The SATA numbers on the motherboard are different than these.
I disconnect one.
I try again and get the same answer (it must be in memory).
I kill & restart powershell.
Same thing.
It thinks there are 3 disks but only two are connected now.
There must be a better way to tell which disk is which.
I can see where they're connected to the motherboard.
I'll disconnect all but one and reboot.

How can I tell which disk is which disk?

By reading the paper label, it should match what the command prints.




--
Cheers, Carlos.

Paul in Houston TX wrote:
Paul wrote:
Guadalupe wrote:
said thus to which I respond:

To keep spinning wear down can I software disable platter disks used
once a
month?
Find the disk number X, e.g. with "get-disk"


then in an elevated powershell

set-disk X -isOffline $true​

where X is the disk you want to ignore

ver
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17763.805]

'get-disk' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

set-disk
'set-disk' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/pow...?view=win10-ps



powershell
get-disk

1 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567891 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
2 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567892 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
0 WDC WD10EF... WD-ABC1234567893 Healthy Online 995.25 GB MBR
3 Generic- C... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
6 Generic- M... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
5 Generic- S... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW
4 Generic- S... 2006041309210001 Healthy No Media 0 B RAW

I need to figure out which is NOT the boot disk to run
set-disk X -isOffline $true​

I can't tell which disk is which.
The SATA numbers on the motherboard are different than these.
I disconnect one.
I try again and get the same answer (it must be in memory).
I kill & restart powershell.
Same thing.
It thinks there are 3 disks but only two are connected now.
There must be a better way to tell which disk is which.
I can see where they're connected to the motherboard.
I'll disconnect all but one and reboot.

How can I tell which disk is which disk?

You can set a disk "offline" using Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) GUI.

https://i.postimg.cc/rw1t6V5W/offline.gif

The OS remembers this, and after a reboot, the disk which
is offline, will still be offline, until you set it
"Online" again via the menu.

Paul

I don't think that kills the power though.


I don't know of anything that "hammers the state" of the
drive, so the response of your particular device should
be verified by experiment.

Just because it's offline, should stop accesses to it, as
all the partitions on the drive are dismounted.

My 500GB drive doesn't have power saving, so once it was
offline, it would continue spinning forever. My other
two drives would spin down, and the controller would
sit in "idle". Still wasting 2 or 3 watts per drive, but
not affecting the life of the drive adversely.

There is also the option of using "Disable" for the item
while examining the drives in Device Manager. But again,
the mere act of doing that, doesn't constrain power management
for the device. If it stops spinning, that would be
an unintentional bonus.

And if you use a power management program to attempt to spin
the device down, it might work for a minute or two, until
the OS stats() the volume again.

The problem is, there's too much automation working against
your intentions. Even if you write a program to "keep
slapping the disk down", it's going to burn up spinup
cycle counts or the like in the process.

It should make for lots of fun experiments.

Paul

Guadalupe wrote:

How can I tell which disk is which disk?

make sure you see all disk properties

get-disk| ft -property * -wrap

compare to what you can see in diskmgmt.msc
select a disk, properties
device instance path should correspond to object id

Paul in Houston TX wrote:

I don't think that kills the power though.

as far as I remember, it does spin it down ... that was the reason I
used powershell set-disk, to have a shortcut that would cut the noise
from a particularly loud external disk.

Andy Burns wrote:
Paul in Houston TX wrote:

I don't think that kills the power though.

as far as I remember, it does spin it down ... that was the reason I
used powershell set-disk, to have a shortcut that would cut the noise
from a particularly loud external disk.

Thanks Andy.
Unfortunately I don't have a w10 o/s at the moment to check and that get
code is not available in w7.
Disabling the hdd in dskmgnt does not stop the motor. Checked on two
different sata drives to be sure.

I'll have to put w10 back on a drive... someday.