Turning off second HDD

[LovelyFlipper]

I have a second hard drive installed that I clone to about once a month.
It seems to me that having it run all the time is unnecessary.
I also think that having it turned off will keep it safe from becoming infected.
Is there a way to turn it off without unplugging it?

 

[pbcopter]

Unfortunately there is no way to turn an individual hard drive off.

I installed a SATA hard drive tray in the front of my case that allows me to hot plug drives and safely remove them for backup purposes.

 

[LovelyFlipper]

Pbcopter, thanks for the reply.
It's not such a big deal for me to open the case and unplug it.
I was just wondering if there was some cool little trick that I didn't know about.

 

[pbcopter]

I like this tray. It has a fan and a power button to shutdown the drive. Just for your info.

IcyDock Tray

 

[jumanji]

You may right click on the Disk in Windows Disk Management and click on Offline to take it Offline.

You may toggle it Online again when you want to.



(You may need to reboot for the change to become effective in both cases.)

 

[Layback Bear]

jumanji idea will work to the best of my knowledge.

I personally use HotSwap bays. You will have a sata connection. Plug a ssd or hard drive in and then just use it as need be. When done just remove it and put it some place safe.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

First, you are to be commended for having the good sense to have a backup! So many people do not, then show up here or on another forum distraught because their HDD with all the family photos, doctorate's dissertation, whatever, died and they didn't have a backup.

Storing backup drives outside the computer is the safest way to store them. I have a 2.5" hot swap bay built into my case and I added a 3.5" hot swap bay in a 5.25" bay. I just plug in an internal type 3.5" HDD into the hot swap bay to update my backup, then remove it and return it to the drawer I keep it in. Easy peasey, quick and slick.

An alternative to adding a hot swap bay to your computer would be to get an external dock, set it on top or alongside the computer, and leave it connected to the computer all the time. Just remove the backup HDD when not updating the backup.

There are switches available for shutting down HDDs (Orico and Lian Li are two manufacturers I've seen make them) that fit in a 5.25" bay. However, even if you use a switch or go inside the computer to disconnect the backup drive, you run the risk of losing the backup if good ol' Light Fingered Louie exercises his five finger discount and your computer and backup will both go south. Having the backup in a separate place from your computer dramatically reduces the chance of losing both.

Also, even if you keep your backups in another room, a fire, storm, meteor strike, etc. could still cause you to lose all your data, including the backup. Keeping a second backup offsite, such as in a locked drawer or locker at work, a trusted friend's or relative's house, or a bank safe deposit box will dramatically reduce the amount of data you would loose in a dramatic disaster, the amount depending on how often you update the offsite backup. Another way to have an offsite backup that is easier to keep up to date is to use a good, paid, backup service, such as Carbonite.com, Crashplan, or Backblaze. These have software on your computer that will encrypt your data before it ever leaves the computer. Just stay away from cloud storage sites, especially the free ones. They rarely are secure and the free ones are notorious for disappearing with little or no notice.

 

[LovelyFlipper]

Pbcopter.
I love that IcyDock Tray.
Sure wish I had room for something like that.

 

[LovelyFlipper]

You may right click on the Disk in Windows Disk Management and click on Offline to take it Offline.

You may toggle it Online again when you want to.

View attachment 382914

(You may need to reboot for the change to become effective in both cases.)

By golly, that's the kind of trick I was hoping for! Thank you!

 

[LovelyFlipper]

Lady Fitzgerald,
Don't worry about me, I'm totally neurotic about backing up files and having multiple clones of my hard drives in various locations.
I'm not giving up my elegant Windows 7 without a fight.

 

[RolandJS]

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.

 

[LovelyFlipper]

RolandJS, ANOTHER fine trick!

Am I the only person that ever wanted to turn off a backup Hard Drive?
Do most people just let them run? Just curious.

 

[whs]

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.

 

[ThrashZone]

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

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

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.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

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?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

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.

 

[RolandJS]

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.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

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.

 

[pbcopter]

Disabling the drive does not remove the power. I thought that is what the OP wanted.