Turning off second HDD

Guys, Control Panel --> Device Manager --> Disk Drives --> Disable [not Uninstall] the 2nd HD works for me; I'm using Windows 7 Pro, I'm not sure if that will work for all Windows 7s out there.

Nah, most people use an external drive for backup that they just disconnect. I myself use an external enclosure. That lets me reuse all those HDDs that I have recovered from the laptops when they were upgraded with SSDs.

I always disconnect them if not going to use them
Any connected device is just as corruptible as the os drive.

whs said:

Nah, most people use an external drive for backup that they just disconnect. I myself use an external enclosure. That lets me reuse all those HDDs that I have recovered from the laptops when they were upgraded with SSDs.

I have a bunch of those recovered 2.5" HDDs. Pity they don't have more capacity. I use one occasionally for experiments but, for the most part, they are just taking up space in a drawer because I can't bring myself to get rid of perfectly good hardware.

RolandJS said:

Guys, Control Panel --> Device Manager --> Disk Drives --> Disable [not Uninstall] the 2nd HD works for me; I'm using Windows 7 Pro, I'm not sure if that will work for all Windows 7s out there.

That's a nice trick to know. I just tried it with a spare HDD I had knocking about (one of those 2.5" ones I mentioned earlier) and I was able to disable and reenable it. I didn't bother to see if a disabled drive would show up again after a reboot, though. Would it?

Also, all that the list displays is the part number of the drive. How would one determine which drive to disable if one has multiple drives with the same part number?

ThrashZone said:

I always disconnect them if not going to use them
Any connected device is just as corruptible as the os drive.

Not a bad idea but, unless you physically disconnect them, it still wouldn't protect them from getting fried if the PSU were to ever fail or a massive spike or surge blows through your spike and surge protection and the PSU.

Lady Fitzgerald said:

RolandJS said:

Guys, Control Panel --> Device Manager --> Disk Drives --> Disable [not Uninstall] the 2nd HD works for me; I'm using Windows 7 Pro, I'm not sure if that will work for all Windows 7s out there.

That's a nice trick to know. I just tried it with a spare HDD I had knocking about (one of those 2.5" ones I mentioned earlier) and I was able to disable and reenable it. I didn't bother to see if a disabled drive would show up again after a reboot, though. Would it?
Also, all that the list displays is the part number of the drive. How would one determine which drive to disable if one has multiple drives with the same part number?

Correct, before disabling, re-enabling hard-drives, serial numbers have to be "hunted up" with software-based sniffers, I think I used something similar to tweaking.com's hardware ID to learn which serial number went with which HD listed in the explorer.exe's left side panel.
If memory serves me, a disabled drive will not show up in explorer.exe's left side panel after that particular Windows session has been restarted. Now, what I do not know: if any malware can "behind your back" reEnable a disabled hard-drive.
I once tried uninstalling a 2nd hard-drive and/or using Acronis Disk Manager to HIDE such a HD, and I had to jump through a couple of hoops to get the hard-drive back into explorer.exe's good graces.

RolandJS said:

Lady Fitzgerald said:

RolandJS said:

Guys, Control Panel --> Device Manager --> Disk Drives --> Disable [not Uninstall] the 2nd HD works for me; I'm using Windows 7 Pro, I'm not sure if that will work for all Windows 7s out there.

That's a nice trick to know. I just tried it with a spare HDD I had knocking about (one of those 2.5" ones I mentioned earlier) and I was able to disable and reenable it. I didn't bother to see if a disabled drive would show up again after a reboot, though. Would it?
Also, all that the list displays is the part number of the drive. How would one determine which drive to disable if one has multiple drives with the same part number?

Correct, before disabling, re-enabling hard-drives, serial numbers have to be "hunted up" with software-based sniffers, I think I used something similar to tweaking.com's hardware ID to learn which serial number went with which HD listed in the explorer.exe's left side panel.
If memory serves me, a disabled drive will not show up in explorer.exe's left side panel after that particular Windows session has been restarted. Now, what I do not know: if any malware can "behind your back" reEnable a disabled hard-drive.
I once tried uninstalling a 2nd hard-drive and/or using Acronis Disk Manager to HIDE such a HD, and I had to jump through a couple of hoops to get the hard-drive back into explorer.exe's good graces.

I don't see any serial numbers on the list; only part numbers. Pity that. Btw, I can get serial and part numbers using Speccy.