# Power management on Windows NT 4 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 23, 2005, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/power-management-on-windows-nt-4/300754 "2005-04-23T14:09:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EssOEss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6bbea6/32.png) [@EssOEss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EssOEss)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/power-management-on-windows-nt-4/300754/1 "2005-04-23T14:09:52Z")
I’ve just installed NT4 on an old computer in my room to use as a server and to my horror I discovered that it supports absolutely no power management. The problem is that the hard drive is incredibly noisy and it is in my bedroom… a rather big problem ☹ So, is there any-any-any way to get the hdd to power down after a while? I can’t really install a newer OS because it’s a very old computer. 200mhz, 64 MB ram. I do have a copy of 2k but I think the computer is way too slow for that. Or am I wrong? Could it run reasonably as a light-usage server? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/power-management-on-windows-nt-4/300754/2 "2005-04-23T14:19:45Z")
I’ve put windows 2000 on a similar machine. It will work as a file server, an internet gateway, or a simple machine for browser and e-mails, but anything processor or memory intensive is going to make it choke. ---
**Author:** ![EssOEss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6bbea6/32.png) [@EssOEss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EssOEss)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/power-management-on-windows-nt-4/300754/3 "2005-04-23T15:17:32Z")
Alright, thanks. Looks like 2k is worth a shot then 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/power-management-on-windows-nt-4/300754/4 "2005-04-23T15:54:57Z")
NT4 did not support power mgmt, period. There was a KB out that warned against installing any 3rd party power management, or enabling any hardware-level power management. IIRC, the problem was that if the disk powered down, NT would crash on restart every time. As ECG said, switch to W2K. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/power-management-on-windows-nt-4/300754/5 "2005-04-23T19:28:41Z")
Hang on! This is a **server** , working 24/7, and you want to put power management on it? I’d suggest you’d be better off looking at quietening the computer. A cheap and easy fix is to mount the HDD with rubber washers between the HDD and the frame. Then you can look into quiet fans. Another low-tech solution would be to put the server in a cupboard or the attic. If you do put Windows 2000 on it, I strongly suggest buying extra memory. It’s not expensive, unless it’s something wierd. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/power-management-on-windows-nt-4/300754/6 "2005-04-24T08:03:32Z")
Forgot to add that a machine that old may not support power management. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/power-management-on-windows-nt-4/300754/7 "2005-04-24T09:26:48Z")
My server has those hardware specs - it’s headless running some version of Debian and is my router/firewall/fileserver/webserver/other stuff all in one. I keep it downstairs and it stays out of everyone’s way. Other than [gallery](http://gallery.sourceforge.net/) taking a while to load pictures, I’m fairly satisfied with it for now. The 120G drive in it that’s earmarked for weekly backups is kept spun down most of the time with [hdparm](http://www.rt.com/man/hdparm.8.html).