Can I turn off just ONE hard disk?

[Gary]

My PC has two hard disks. My C drive is large enough to deal with all the
data (and then some) and I use my D drive primarily as a backup drive and an
archive.

If I turn on / set the "Turn off hard disks:" option to whatever minutes
(personally, probably 20 minutes), will it power down the D drive after the
alotted time, or will it remain powered because I'm still working away on
the C drive?

I suspect that the power will still be going, so I then ask, is there a way
to tell the drive to power down when there is no activity on it?

Gary
Thanks to all who can help.

 

[POP]

In

My PC has two hard disks. My C drive is large enough to deal
with
all the data (and then some) and I use my D drive primarily as
a
backup drive and an archive.

If I turn on / set the "Turn off hard disks:" option to
whatever
minutes (personally, probably 20 minutes), will it power down
the D
drive after the alotted time, or will it remain powered because
I'm
still working away on the C drive?

I suspect that the power will still be going, so I then ask, is
there
a way to tell the drive to power down when there is no activity
on it?

Gary
Thanks to all who can help.

Look around Control Panel, Power Options if you have one. It
should let you choose hwat happens to the drive; does here at
least.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

No. The power options for the hard drives is global. If you notice, the option is to turn off the Hard Disk(s). I doubt if it would be useful to power down the second hard drive if nothing is being accessed there anyway.

 

[POP]

In

No. The power options for the hard drives is global. If you
notice,
the option is to turn off the Hard Disk(s). I doubt if it would
be
useful to power down the second hard drive if nothing is being
accessed there anyway.

Whether it's global or not depends on the BIOS. I can turn one
drive "off" and it won't spin up at the next boot. I can also
spin diskS down in connection with the BIOS "screensaver"
function, which is an actual screensaver in that it paints
nothing to the screen when it's enabled.

Please don't paint the world with one brush.

Pop`

 

[Mike Hall, MS-MVP]

... or one BIOS..