How to programatically prevent Windows from hard disk drive spin down?

Question

My program performs a task on the hard disk free space. The task is quite long, it takes 1-2 hours.

The problem is that on laptop the hard disk may be turned off after few minutes when the user is inactive.

How do I programmatically prevent Windows from hard disk spin down (power off) ?

Answer 1

To prevent the system from entering idle mode you may try to use the SetThreadExecutionState function. This function informs the system that the application is in use and allows you to specify the thread's execution requirements. The usage can be like this, but I'm not sure if this affects also the disk power down timer:

type
  EXECUTION_STATE = DWORD;

const
  ES_SYSTEM_REQUIRED = $00000001;
  ES_DISPLAY_REQUIRED = $00000002;
  ES_USER_PRESENT = $00000004;
  ES_AWAYMODE_REQUIRED = $00000040;
  ES_CONTINUOUS = $80000000;

function SetThreadExecutionState(esFlags: EXECUTION_STATE): EXECUTION_STATE;
  stdcall; external 'kernel32.dll' name 'SetThreadExecutionState';

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  if SetThreadExecutionState(ES_CONTINUOUS or ES_SYSTEM_REQUIRED or
    ES_AWAYMODE_REQUIRED) <> 0 then
  try
    // execute your long running task here
  finally
    SetThreadExecutionState(ES_CONTINUOUS);
  end;
end;

Or there is also available the new set of functions PowerCreateRequest, PowerSetRequest and PowerClearRequest designed for Windows 7, but the documentation is confusing and I haven't found any example of their usage at this time.

Or you can modify the power settings by PowerWriteACValueIndex or PowerWriteDCValueIndex functions with the GUID_DISK_SUBGROUP subgroup of power settings.

Answer 2

Windows does not allow applications to disable power control changes, because buggy applications were causing batteries to be drained. See http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2007/04/16/2148139.aspx

You can get notified when the system power status is about to be changed. See WM_POWERBROADCAST Messages.