Spin-down on one of two internal HDs

[pb1234]

Hello,

I have Lenovo Laptop with an SSD as system drive and a 1TB Samsung 2.5' SATA (HN-M101MBB) drive in the so-called secondary hard drive adapter (does true SATA). What I would like to do is always have this hard drive spin down as soon as possible, because I don't need it often and I want it to be silent but available. However, I do not want to affect the performance of my SSD. I don't know how the corresponding energy setting in Windows 7 affects my SSD, so this is why I bought the Sentinel program, because I read in some forum that it was possible to set the power settings for individual drives. My problem now is that I do not seem to be able to change the advanced power management nor the accoustic management for this drive. I see the settings but it says "deaktivated", and I cannot activate it.

So, my question would be two-folded: does anyone know if setting the hard drive spin-down in Windows 7 will in any way affect my SSD, and, if so, does anyone know if my Sentinel software not being able to change the power settings is likely due to the secondary hard drive adapter in some way?

Thanks in advance for any tips or pointers.

All best,
Phil

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for your message and thanks for using registered version of Hard Disk Sentinel software.

Sometimes the hard disk controller driver may block the command(s) transported to the hard disks. In this situation, the management functions (for example the acoustic management and the power management) may be blocked, the hard disk does not receive the command itself.
In this situation, upgrading the hard disk controller driver may help (please check www.hdsentinel.com -> Support -> Driver Zone for recommended drivers for most common hard disk controllers).

If possible, please use Report -> Send test report to developer function. This way it is possible to check the hard disk controller, the driver and the hard disk capabilities so maybe I can advise.

The power management function (which can be adjusted in Hard Disk Sentinel) adjusts the internal power management feature of the hard disk, which is sometimes independent from the power scheme configured in Windows. Anyway, if you prefer to have the hard disk spin down as soon as possible, I'd recommend to adjust the power management settings in Windows and enable spin down of hard disks as quickly as possible. This should not affect the performance and availability of the SSD (especially because it contains the system).

Note: Hard Disk Sentinel periodically detects the hard disk status which (as any read operation) may prevent the hard disk from entering sleep mode. I'd recommend to adjust the detection frequency (drag the slider to right) on Configuration -> Advanced options. When Hard Disk Sentinel detects that the drive is already sleeping, it does not wake it of course.

[pb1234]

Thanks very much for your reply.
Best regards,
Phil

[nimbystripes]

So far, I found HD Sentinel very useful.