Hard drive power switch

[gtr33m]

Hi.

I have a media player with an internal hard drive, but I rarely use the hard drive and would like to add a switch to disable the hard drive power so as to reduce noise.

My initial mod put a switch on the ground, but that doesn't seem to be enough. The hard drive still powers up.

Is the hard drive grounded to the chassis, or is is it something in the sata connector, or both?

Thanks

Mark

[Airbozo]

More info!

LOL!

First welcome to TBCS.

Second, if you use that drive to boot from, switching it off will cause the OS to crash. Even though you don't use the HDD, the OS does. If you want the noise to be reduced, look into the power settings for the drive. You should be able to find a power setting that is a good compromise.

T

[gtr33m]

The media player is an Astone AP300. It's not a PC box, it's a commercial box, actually Linux based, but power settings are not changeable.

The OS is not contained on the drive, only data. Most of the time I play stuff over the network from a NAS box, but sometimes we take it away with us and copy stuff to the internal drive. I could open it up and pull the plugs on the drive and fan, but a switch would be easier.

Thanks

Mark

[Airbozo]

Then you will need to switch both power lines on the drive.

The yellow wire and red wire will need to be switched. A double pull double throw switch will work.

[gtr33m]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I ended up using a double pole switch on tht 12v (yellow) and 5v (red) wires. The fan is 12v constant so I hooked it up to the 12v on the switch. All good!

This device is designed to run without a hard drive, but I'm still careful to start it with the switch either on or off, present or not during boot.

Mark

Btw, double pole single throw is sufficient

[Airbozo]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I ended up using a double pole switch on tht 12v (yellow) and 5v (red) wires. The fan is 12v constant so I hooked it up to the 12v on the switch. All good!

This device is designed to run without a hard drive, but I'm still careful to start it with the switch either on or off, present or not during boot.

Mark

Btw, double pole single throw is sufficient

You are correct sir! Got double double typing excited! LOL!

One question: If you start the system with the HDD turned off, will it see the HDD if you later turn it on?

[Twigsoffury]

You are correct sir! Got double double typing excited! LOL!

One question: If you start the system with the HDD turned off, will it see the HDD if you later turn it on?

it does in windows at least, i've hot-swapped SATA's before.

should take care though as i think hard drives need to be "parked" before they are turned off or the R/W head will stay out over the platter potentially striking it if its moved around which im sure would result in corruption and a big old red spot on your drive when using a disk checker.


and man that is one quiet computer if you can hear your hard drive.

[Airbozo]

it does in windows at least, i've hot-swapped SATA's before.

should take care though as i think hard drives need to be "parked" before they are turned off or the R/W head will stay out over the platter potentially striking it if its moved around which im sure would result in corruption and a big old red spot on your drive when using a disk checker.


and man that is one quiet computer if you can hear your hard drive.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure all modern drives will park automagically when power is removed. This is a function of the head assembly.