2nd Hard Drive. help!

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Hello guys,

I am planning to put a 2nd hard drive in my PC to use only for backups. It will
be the slave drive. I will copy the files once everyday on it. What I would like
to know is tat when I turn on the PC will the 2nd hard drive spin all day?? I
would need it only for a few mins everyday so I don't want it to spin all day to
wear out. i am using win xp pro.

Kindly let me know and thanks before hand.

 

[Dee]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

RayOfLight wrote:
> Hello guys,
>
> I am planning to put a 2nd hard drive in my PC to use only for backups. It will
> be the slave drive. I will copy the files once everyday on it. What I would like
> to know is tat when I turn on the PC will the 2nd hard drive spin all day?? I
> would need it only for a few mins everyday so I don't want it to spin all day to
> wear out. i am using win xp pro.
>
> Kindly let me know and thanks before hand.

If you really don't want the drive to be on all the time you have your
computer turned on, you could get a rack that fits in a 5-1/4 inch slot
and has a removable tray with the hard drive. You would have to power
off to plug in the removable drive, but that's about the only
inconvenience. I've been using several of these for years. It allows
me to have several different OS's and configurations that I plug in as
needed.

Another option would be an external USB or Firewire plug-in drive. You
wouldn't have to power down to connect one of these. You can buy the
cases without drives and put whatever size EIDE drive you want. The
following link is just one example of many USB cases:

http://www.gearxs.com/gearxs/product_info.php?products_id=3338

I am by no means endorsing or recommending this particular item!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

"RayOfLight" <RayOfLight@intnet.mu> wrote...
>
> I am planning to put a 2nd hard drive in my PC to use only for backups. It
> will
> be the slave drive. I will copy the files once everyday on it. What I would
> like
> to know is tat when I turn on the PC will the 2nd hard drive spin all day?? I
> would need it only for a few mins everyday so I don't want it to spin all day
> to
> wear out. i am using win xp pro.

Use the Power Options app in the Control Panel to set your HDs to power down
after a set time. Depending on your setup, your primary HD will not likely spin
down while you're working. You may occasionally have to wait for your primary
HD to spin up (or for the backup HD to spin up for some functions like emptying
the Recycle Bin), but the backup drive will spin down until needed.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

All harddrives connected to the motherboard ALWAYS spin when the computer is
on.

--
DaveW



"RayOfLight" <RayOfLight@intnet.mu> wrote in message
news:r3l0s0pij9i7ejvealnr4sql45epr4ud87@4ax.com...
> Hello guys,
>
> I am planning to put a 2nd hard drive in my PC to use only for backups. It
> will
> be the slave drive. I will copy the files once everyday on it. What I
> would like
> to know is tat when I turn on the PC will the 2nd hard drive spin all
> day?? I
> would need it only for a few mins everyday so I don't want it to spin all
> day to
> wear out. i am using win xp pro.
>
> Kindly let me know and thanks before hand.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

"DaveW" <none@zero.org> wrote...
> All harddrives connected to the motherboard ALWAYS spin when the computer is
> on.


IDE? SATA? SCSI?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 02:58:17 GMT, "John R Weiss"
<jrweiss98155@.comNOSPAMcast.net> wrote:

>"DaveW" <none@zero.org> wrote...
>> All harddrives connected to the motherboard ALWAYS spin when the computer is
>> on.
>
>
>IDE? SATA? SCSI?
>


Don't try to make sense out of that statement, sometimes
DaveW just likes to be contrary.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

drill hole in case
cut power lead to 2nd drive
connect switch to leads
mount switch within easy reach
turn of drive whenever you want.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Depending on Mfg card....the control panel's display screen saver
setting setup, could have a sleep/turn off drive cycle....

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:18:46 -0500, "-Alby Hewlet" <bogus@nowhere.net>
wrote:

>drill hole in case
>cut power lead to 2nd drive
>connect switch to leads
>mount switch within easy reach
>turn of drive whenever you want.
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 20:44:21 -0500, Leon Manfredi <manfred@toast.net>
wrote:

>Depending on Mfg card....the control panel's display screen saver
>setting setup, could have a sleep/turn off drive cycle....
>
>On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:18:46 -0500, "-Alby Hewlet" <bogus@nowhere.net>
>wrote:
>
>>drill hole in case
>>cut power lead to 2nd drive
>>connect switch to leads
>>mount switch within easy reach
>>turn of drive whenever you want.


After reading everyone's input to this matter, I tend to agree with
whomever said to go for the USB/FIREWIRE option as I too fall into
this catagory of hating the drive being ON for no reason and thus
cutting its life expentancy shorter than normal.

I did the same for my second DVDRW now... and the first one already
got burnt-out a long time ago. Quite frankly, I dont see a reason as
to why a DVDRW/CDRW or even an HDD should be ON when not needed for
any purposes other than to have to turn it ON when is needed.

Makes a heck of a lotta sense to me!