I've recently swapped out my noisy hard drive for an SSD, but I still want to keep the HDD for occasional backups. The problem is, I can't find a way to completely turn off the HDD without unplugging it from the power supply. I've already tried setting it to 'offline' in Windows 10's Disk Manager and turning it off in Device Manager, but it still makes noise and stays active. Based on my searches, I haven't found any solid solutions yet. Any ideas?
5 Answers
You could also go for an external cage for your HDD; it's handy for just plugging it in when you need it.
Some users have had success forcing sleep mode on their drives by supplying 3.3V to the SATA power connector. Check out the DevSleep feature for more details!
I tried several software solutions to turn off my HDD, but they never worked perfectly. Eventually, I got a PCIe card with switches for each HDD which lets me turn them off completely without unplugging.
Honestly, is it that hard to just plug the power cable back in when you need it? It takes five minutes at most. An external housing can be a bit much if you're only using it now and then.
It might be easier to just get an external housing for your HDD so you can connect it via USB when you need it. This way, you won't have to worry about powering it down and can keep things quieter at home.
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