Hi,
Is it possible to disconnect a SATA drive thru GUI (with the effect of also powering-down the drive)? Kind of like (loosely) ejecting an optical media (right-click optical drive icon -> eject) or (more closely) disconnecting a USB device (Safely Remove Hardware -> Stop). At the same time, again thru GUI, reconnect or re-enable the SATA drive (the drive has not been physically disconnected since being "diconnected").
I have several SATA drives and, for most of the time, are not accessed (but are simultaneously used when needed). Being able to disconnect them (and power them down) when not needed saves power and extends the life of the drive (unless, ofcourse, frequently disconnected/reconnected). Setting the Power Options -> Turn off harddisks settings won't work since, mostly, any service/software polling the drives will just power them back on (resulting in inceased wear). In some cases these services/software, if they can be identified at all, doesn't always have the option to disable polling.
Putting the drives on removable bays is one option, but is costly and consumes a lot of space (as the number of drives increase, in cases where multiple drives must be accessed simultaneously).
If it can't be done natively in Vista, how about any 3rd party software?
Regards.
Is it possible to disconnect a SATA drive thru GUI (with the effect of also powering-down the drive)? Kind of like (loosely) ejecting an optical media (right-click optical drive icon -> eject) or (more closely) disconnecting a USB device (Safely Remove Hardware -> Stop). At the same time, again thru GUI, reconnect or re-enable the SATA drive (the drive has not been physically disconnected since being "diconnected").
I have several SATA drives and, for most of the time, are not accessed (but are simultaneously used when needed). Being able to disconnect them (and power them down) when not needed saves power and extends the life of the drive (unless, ofcourse, frequently disconnected/reconnected). Setting the Power Options -> Turn off harddisks settings won't work since, mostly, any service/software polling the drives will just power them back on (resulting in inceased wear). In some cases these services/software, if they can be identified at all, doesn't always have the option to disable polling.
Putting the drives on removable bays is one option, but is costly and consumes a lot of space (as the number of drives increase, in cases where multiple drives must be accessed simultaneously).
If it can't be done natively in Vista, how about any 3rd party software?
Regards.