Tech Support > Computer Hardware > Storage Devices > Can a USB external HDD be spun down?
Can a USB external HDD be spun down?
Posted by squelch41@hotmail.com on February 11th, 2007


Hi,

I was wondering if there is a way of spinning down an external USB HDD
in windows 2000 when inactivein the same way that an internal HDD can
be?

I used to have a firewire/USB enclosure that did this in firewire but
not usb.

Have just replaced it with an akansa box.

Any ideas how I could achieve this? Would save power, heat, and
improve disk longevity!

Thanks
squelch41

Posted by Arno Wagner on February 11th, 2007


Previously squelch41@hotmail.com wrote:
It cannot be done. The required command simply cannot be sent
over USB in any standardized way.

The only thing that might be possible is to have the disk spin itself
down if inactive for some time. In order to set this (if the disk
supports it), it has to be directly connected via (A)ATA and some HDD
feature tool has to be used to make the changes.

Arno


Posted by Eric Gisin on February 11th, 2007


"Arno Wagner" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message news:5390imF1r0eqeU2@mid.individual.net...
but no SCSI utility for Windows sees USB drives. [it is a trivial Win32 application ...]




Posted by Folkert Rienstra on February 12th, 2007


"Arno Wagner" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message news:5390imF1r0eqeU2@mid.individual.net
Of course it can, for the same reason that you (don't) say it cannot.
If it can be done for firewire then obviously it can be done with USB too.

Whether it works depends on how much of the SCSI command set has
been implemented in the bridge device.

Yes it can, clueless babblebot.

Such as there is?