I’m slowly swapping my HDDs for SSDs, with the space I’m gaining in the case I want to re-use a single 18TB HDD to add an extra level of backup in the form of a basic Robocopy replica of key folders. Once a week, during the night. Just because I can.
I’m looking for a SATA power switch/controller that has the option for USB remote control. I’ve seen lots of manually switched controllers that fit in 5.25" bays, that form factor is fine but manual switching isn’t. If there are no other options I will get a manual controller and add an Arduino + relay to provide remote control, I thought I’d ask here first.
Alternatives I’ve already considered are loading the disk manually into the hot swap bay I have - too much effort like manually switching the disk on. Absolute last resort would be an eSATA enclosure and a smart socket, an 18TB disk in one of those would be LOUD.
“properly power off the disk”, for an internal disk, isn’t really a thing. I don’t think that the OS, any OS, expects to regularly have disks totally lose power. Sure, hotswapping is a thing, but that’s still weird to do on a regular basis.
Having it “cold” to avoid malware and power surges is a fair idea, though. You’d still be concerned about the data lines getting a surge but that’s not as likely.
As a somewhat-less-cursed idea, how about an SBC like a raspberry pi on a smartplug inside your case? It can safely unmount the drive before asking the plug to turn itself off. Then there’s two devices that need to get crypto-lockered before you lose your data.