[SOLVED] A way to make a SATA hdd idle.

[windranger]

In my desktop PC I have two internal SATA hard drives; the first one is for OS and data, the second one is for data backup.

The second drive is accessed only once a month by a program which does the back-up of data on first drive.
Since the total volume of new data in one month compared to the previous one is not so high, the backup process takes typically less than 1-2 minutes.
So this drive is accessed very rarely and is needed less than half an hour per year. Therefore, since it is not necessary that it keeps spinning all the time,
I want to reduce power usage and to reduce the drive's wearing out too.

So I would like to know if there is any way to make this drive not spin (be idle) except for two situations:
- When it is accessed by that particular back-up program.
- When I access it (through Windows explorer, etc.)

My question is - in case such a setting cannot be done in Windows, is theoretically possible to have a small script (C or C#) do this task?
Or, does such a utility program already exist out there?

Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

Set it to Sleep.

But a much better way to do this is with an external drive that you plug in when needed.
Your backup drive being in the same system is vulnerable to the same conditions that might cause you to need the backup.

Ransomware, power surge, fire, etc, etc, etc...

 

[kanewolf]

Monthly backups are probably too infrequent, IMO. You should be doing nightly backups and keeping multiple versions.

Hard drives are best when they are constant. On OR off. Spin up and spin down are harder on the hardware than constant spinning.