Are there really no ways to completely shut down a hard drive in Windows without pulling out the power cable? Sometimes having too many drives and not enough money to buy a NAS can be a little bit too loud.
There has to be a way at least?
Are there really no ways to completely shut down a hard drive in Windows without pulling out the power cable? Sometimes having too many drives and not enough money to buy a NAS can be a little bit too loud.
There has to be a way at least?
MS has directions to dismount a HD (windows 7, but also applies to Windows 8): launch the Computer Management CPL applet; on the left, select Storage and Disk Management; right-click the drive to remove and select Change Drive Letter and Paths; finally select Remove.
Caveat: Though this will dismount the drive, it depends on the HD firmware to spin down, and it might not. If this drive is going to be mounted and dismounted on a regular basis, it might be more efficient to remove the drive and put it in an external USB enclosure. You can Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media easily, and you can unplug it if it is not to be used for a while.