Turning Hard Drives Completely Off

[kuroiookami]

Hello All,

I have 6 drives in a raid array in my computer that I use as mass storage / backup. I was wondering if there was anything made out there that I could use to switch off the 6 drives (before boot) so if I wasn't using them they wouldn't spin up.

This is for wear and tear and in a small part to save electricity,

My motherboard seems to have this function (HDD Saver) but it's made for only 2 hard drives,

Thanks!

 

[Ralston18]

For one device you would need a Molex switch something like what is shown in the following link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Pin-Molex-Extension-Sleeved-Cable-w-On-Off-Toggle-Power-Switch-36-inch-/400696513855

That said I think you are better off just to leave things as they are. The electrical savings is probably negliable and as for wear and tear you can manage that to some extent by the type and freqency of any backups.

Routing the power for 6 drives through one switch could be problematic and I think the internal wiring would be a nightmare.

Besides if you were booted up and later needed the RAID you might need to shut down and reboot anyway.....

Probably end up with more start/stop cycles overall especially if one or more of the drives start acting up or have some interim problem.

Best to forego it all even though the concept does have a certain appeal.