how can i set my hard disks to turn off?
 

Can anyone solve this:

How can i set my hard disks to turn off NEVER but have them turn off the moment I leave without shutting down my computer?

I know that I can set them to turn off in 15 minutes, but this makes them shut off AS I am working. The other extreme is to set them to turn off in 3 hours, but that's 3 hours of HD activity after I leave my office that is "wasted". See what I mean?

I think starting them and stopping them all the time is harder on them then leaving them running.... All your hardrives do (or SHOULD be doing) when you are away is spin. :2 cents:

Don't worry about stopping your harddisks unless your machine will be running for a long time (days or weeks) without having to access the disk.

control panel/power options

I thought of this too, but having your HDs run at 7200 (or whatever) RPM consistantly seems hard on them, but you are probably right.

format c:

Think of webservers...running for years...constantly...with no drives seizing.

I have an old Western Digital 1.2 gig Caviar in one box that has been running constant for about 6 + years now. 7200 RPM isn't all that fast considering some SCSI drives run at 15 000+ RPM, all day, every day for years. I think the Seagate Cheetah does, anyways.

My biggest thing is heat. Heat will cause you the most grief, and is would probably be the likely culprit for hardware failure. I have never shut down my computers. And never had problems running them constantly for years on end. :2 cents:

yeah,there's no reason to turn them off.