Turn off/Disable HDD

[Accelerator19981]

my quastion:
Im looking for a way to completly disable the hdd when I dont need it. I tried to do that by using the device manager/ partition management but there is no such option. I also went to the Bios settings but I have a very basic Laptop Bios and there is also no option to control hard drives...
 

Full text:

I have a msi gaming Laptop with nvme and hard drive. Windows 10 and all programs are installed on the Nvme and I use the 1TB HDD for games/movies etc.
Since Im currently studing at the college I usually use my laptop for writing Projects and browsering the internet.
The "Problem" I have is that the hdd keep spinning which is annoying for me while studying and waste my battery when im outside.
Things I tried:
 I went to the power Option and set the hdd to turn off after 1 min, which kinda worked but apperntly alot of things could trigger the hdd to spin like openning windows explorer, so what I did is locking the hdd partition with bitlock and that helped too. Now opening windows explorer doesn`t trigger it anymore.
But windows still decide randomaly to turn on the hdd especailly when I go afk for copule of minutes.
any help is appreciated!

[Enderman]

Turning an HDD on and off is bad for its lifespan.

[.Apex.]

3 minutes ago, Accelerator19981 said:

my quastion:
Im looking for a way to completly disable the hdd when I dont need it. I tried to do that by using the device manager/ partition management but there is no such option. I also went to the Bios settings but I have a very basic Laptop Bios and there is also no option to control hard drives...

Set how long your Hard Drive stays on before it turns off in your preferred Power Plan by going into Advanced settings and setting "Turn off hard disk after".

If it still stays on forever then there's something using it, either a program or maybe a monitoring program that forces the hard drive to stay on to monitor it.

[.Apex.]

1 minute ago, syn2112 said:

Set how long your Hard Drive stays on before it turns off in your preferred Power Plan by going into Advanced settings and setting "Turn off hard disk after".

If it still stays on forever then there's something using it, either a program or maybe a monitoring program that forces the hard drive to stay on to monitor it.

for example opening Task Manager spins up my hard drive to monitor it.

[ddennis002]

Can you sata ports be setup as hot swap? If so you can do safely remove device this should park the drive. It will disconnect the drive letter until you restart or search for devices in device manager. Also you could take the drive out and put in an external enclosure and only connect it when you need it.

[Accelerator19981]

16 hours ago, Enderman said:

Turning an HDD on and off is bad for its lifespan.

Wait really? isn't it supposed to make the lifespan longer since Im using it less?

[Enderman]

7 minutes ago, Accelerator19981 said:

Wait really? isn't it supposed to make the lifespan longer since Im using it less?

No.

A lot of the wear on an HDD is the spin up/down cycles.

It is better to have it left on or off for long periods of time.