I want to disable my NVMe drive and only turn it on when I actually need it. At the moment it receives power whenever the computer starts, even when I barely use it, and I'm worried that this will shorten its lifespan after recently having another SSD fail unexpectedly. Physically removing the drive isn't practical because accessing it requires removing my graphics card. Is there a motherboard or BIOS feature that can completely cut power to the NVMe drive, or is it normally powered whenever the PC is on?
4 Answers
Some BIOSes may let you disable or hide a storage device, but that usually prevents access without physically cutting power. Motherboards rarely provide a setting that completely switches off an individual M.2 slot.
If you absolutely need a physical power switch, you could put the drive in a USB NVMe enclosure and connect it only when needed. However, that adds inconvenience and may expose the drive to more handling or accidental disconnections, so it’s probably not worthwhile for an unused internal drive.
Reading generally causes little or no flash wear compared with writing. Normal power-on time while the SSD is idle shouldn’t be a concern, and frequent power cycling is not necessarily healthier for the drive either.
An NVMe drive doesn’t meaningfully wear out just because it has power. Most flash wear comes from writing data, so an idle drive that is installed and powered is generally fine. Keeping current backups is a much better protection against sudden failure than repeatedly disconnecting the drive.
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