I'm desperite for an answer, so if you don't know it, even a suggestion as to how to find the answer would be appriciated. I have googled myself to death tryig to find out if there is a way to make the new HDD i bought as a second storage drive to spin down and become inactive after i access it. I will only need it for a few minutes a week, and to have it spinning all the time is counterproductive to all the work i went to to quiet my new rig down, not to mention it'll shorten it's lifespan by 1000 fold since it only will be used about 1000/th of the time the pc is turned on. I asked at the place i bought it and they told me it would only spin when accessed, then spin down within minutes. That just ain't happening ! And i was not going to buy one if that wasn't the case. Power options in control panel only works with the C drive. (this is XP pro bt the way) Is there at least a 3rd party solution if not in windows itself? Please, if you have any ideas i'm desperite. Thanks.