Hi, I have a question about power management settings for desktops. I
understand all of the options except "shut off HDs". How can a HD truly be
off if there is any background processes going on? That is, if my computer
is doing periodic backups, communications with a company firewall, etc... how
does it ever shut down? When I test it out, and attempt to send things to
that computer across a network, it seems as if it's still on. It certainly
sounds on from just listening to the machine, and it doesn't appear to be
spinning down and then back up again like from standby. The problem is that
I need to maintain a 24/7 connection to the internet to receive packages and
patches, so I can't use standby.

Could anyone give me some more information on the "shut off HD" option in
the Power Management settings, and how to test if the HDs are truly shutting
down?