Devices Change Turn Off Hard Disk After Idle Time in Windows 11


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This tutorial will show you how to change how long HDDs are inactive before automatically turned off in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

The Turn off hard disk after setting in Power Options lets you specify the period of inactivity before the disk is automatically powered down.

Having your HDDs automatically turn off after being idle can help save energy and extend the battery life.

When you or anything tries to access a HDD that has been turned off, there will be a delay of a few seconds as the HDD automatically turns back on and spins up before being able to access it.

Reference:


The Turn off hard disk after setting only applies to HDDs.

This does not apply to SSD, M.2, or NVMe drives.



Contents

  • Option One: Change Turn Off Hard Disk After Idle Time in Power Options
  • Option Two: Change Turn Off Hard Disk After Idle Time using Command




Option One

Change Turn Off Hard Disk After Idle Time in Power Options


1 Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Power Options icon.

2 Click/tap on the Change plan settings link to the right of the power plan (ex: "Balanced") you want to change settings for. (see screenshot below)

This will usually be for your active power plan.


Turn_off_hard_disk_after-1.png

3 Click/tap on the Change advanced power settings link. (see screenshot below)

Turn_off_hard_disk_after-2.png

4 In Power Options, expand open Hard disk and Turn off hard disk after. (see screenshot below step 5)

5 Select Never or type how many minutes timeout you want in the On battery and/or Plugged in drop menus, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

You will only see separate On battery and Plugged in settings if your device has a battery or connected to a UPS.

The default On battery time is 10 minutes.

The default Plugged in time is 20 minutes.



Turn_off_hard_disk_after-3.png

6 You can now close the Control Panel if you like.




Option Two

Change Turn Off Hard Disk After Idle Time using Command


This option will apply to your current active power plan.


1 Open Windows Terminal, and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.

2 Type the command(s) below you want to use into Windows Terminal, and press Enter.

Substitute <minutes> in the commands below with how many minutes you want to turn off hard disk after.

Substitute <seconds> in the commands below with how many seconds you want to turn off hard disk after.

0 minutes or seconds would be to never turn off hard disks.

The default On battery time is 10 minutes or 600 seconds.

The default Plugged in time is 20 minutes or 1200 seconds.



 On battery

powercfg -change -disk-timeout-dc <minutes>

OR​

powercfg /SETDCVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 6738e2c4-e8a5-4a42-b16a-e040e769756e <seconds>

AND/OR​

 Plugged in

You would use this option for a desktop computer, since desktop computers will not have separate On battery and Plugged in options available unless it has a data connection to a UPS.


powercfg -change -disk-timeout-ac <minutes>

OR​

powercfg /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 6738e2c4-e8a5-4a42-b16a-e040e769756e <seconds>


That's it,
Shawn Brink


 

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@Brink How do you make your tutorials? I like their minimalist elegance and consistent style.
 

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The settings on mine by default was set to turn after 1 minute. No wonder My 4 ext. drives were casing me delays. Changed it to 60 minutes now no delay at all while using my laptop. Much quicker now
Thanks a lot
 

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The settings on mine by default was set to turn after 1 minute. No wonder My 4 ext. drives were casing me delays. Changed it to 60 minutes now no delay at all while using my laptop. Much quicker now
Thanks a lot
Welcome. :shawn:

I bet that was a pain.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self build
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING (11GB GDDR5X)
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G75 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3 wall mounted
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gbps Download and 35 Mbps Upload
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Defender and Malwarebytes Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Spectre x360 2in1 14-eu0098nr (2024)
    CPU
    Intel Core Ultra 7 155H 4.8 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB LPDDR5x-7467 MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Integrated Intel Arc
    Sound Card
    Poly Studio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    14" 2.8K OLED multitouch
    Screen Resolution
    2880 x 1800
    Hard Drives
    2 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
    Internet Speed
    Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 (2x2) and Bluetooth 5.4
    Browser
    Chrome and Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes Premium

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