[mcgsxr]

Now that I have a PC dedicated to my audio system, with monitor and wireless keyboard, I am more likely to leave it on for extended periods of time, to facilitate ease of getting the tunes going quickly.  It is an older small form factor Dell, running XP Pro.

Can someone help me understand Hibernate vs Standby?

Can either mode shut down an external HD with no power button?  That thing just seems to spin forever, even when the PC goes into screensaver etc.

Thoughts on how best to manage this?

Thanks!

[srb]

Standby leaves all applications open and all system data in RAM, and will power most devices down except for the small idle power needed for the processor and RAM.  Waking up from standby is fairly quick.
 
Hibernate writes a system image to a file on the hard drive, and the system powers down completely.  Waking up from hibernate takes a little longer, and I have occasionally seen the resume from hibernation hang up and require a restart in both XP and Vista.
 
USB external hard drives can be powered down and back up if the drive supports the Power Management Suspend mode.  In the Power Managment application in Control Panel, you can enable or disable the USB Selective Suspend setting and set the time in minutes before the system enters the Sleep mode.  If the device still does not power down, you may also have to go into the Device Manager, and modify one of the USB Root Hubs to "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" with a checkbox in the Properties > Power Management tab.
 
Steve

[ebag4]

Excellent info Steve, thanks.

Best,
Ed

[mcgsxr]

Thanks for the tips, I will give this a run and report back.

[mcgsxr]

Having read more about Hibernate, it appears I am looking more to either explore the option to see if the drive can be shut down as described, or else retrain the user to shut off the darn PC after use!

The external HD will shut down as the PC shuts down, and turns on with turning on the PC, so perhaps there is hope for the ability to have the Standby mode also shut off the external HD.

Booting for tunes is fine for known longer sessions, but less fun to wait for, for a shorter listening session etc.

[srb]

The external HD will shut down as the PC shuts down, and turns on with turning on the PC, so perhaps there is hope for the ability to have the Standby mode also shut off the external HD.

You should be able to get the external HD to power down with Standby.
 
If you are a total green energy freak, and don't want to waste even a few precious watts, then you may want to Hibernate.
 
I prefer Standby for quick wake-up, and as I mentioned, I have experienced the occasional system hang when resuming out of Hibernation.  It depends on the particular motherboard and power supply's power features, but if supported, all fans, including the one in the power supply, power down in Standby, as the minimum power draw required to keep the processor and memory alive shoudn't need any forced air cooling.
 
Steve

[mcgsxr]

Thanks for the insights.

Trust me, it is laziness and the desire to have the HD last longer driving my interest, the Green aspect is a nice bonus.

Have read too many things about Hibernation issues to try that one out.