In reply to:
Do you know if you can set up a power saving scheme in windows that can get it to spin down external drives? It's easy enough and I know it works with internal drives.
It's called "parking" the drive head, when the platters slow, the small cushion of air that keeps the heads off them disappears and the heads are allowed to rest directly on the platter (in the LZone - Landing Zone, for those old enough to remember having to hand enter drive information, ah yes, Heads, Cylinders, Sectors, Write Precomp, LZone... but I digress). All IDE drives (well, I haven't taken a poll, but...) auto park the heads when the drive spins down... imagine it as being taking the stylus away from the record to keep a jolt from slamming it into the vinyl surface.
Not sure, but I THINK Gibson Research made the first manual head park application before they...
... wow, I started trailing off there.
Bren R.
