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I have 6 SATA disks. I need to put one on/off switch for each disk. When I don't use the disk, I want to turn it off instead of each time removing the SATA power cable.

So my question is, The on/off switch have 2 inputs:on/off Switch

I assume the one will be the black one. The other one will be the red, yellow or the orange? (3.3V, 5V, 12V)

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  • Why not just use spindown in the BIOS/UEFI settings and/or OS? Spindown does the same thing, stopping the spindles, effectively powering off the disk, then when the disk needs to be accessed, it will take a few seconds longer to access the data as the spindles spin back up. Trying to do this via a toggle seems like it will create more problems than it solves, as well as introduce a lot of additional wiring into the PC case (12 additional wires/toggle - 6 pigtails of the SATA power cable & 6 pigtails off a 6-way toggle, detailed by @Akina in their answer).
    – JW0914
    Commented Dec 25, 2019 at 14:29
  • Cheap switches like this can also have contact bounce and cause arcing. They might be okay for low current and low voltage stuff, but for sensitive electronics they can be bad.
    – Mokubai ♦
    Commented Dec 25, 2019 at 15:33

1 Answer 1

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SATA power connectors have 15 pins. Look at it. Some of them are shorter, another are longer. When you disconnect the device then shorter are disconnected first, when you connect the device then shorter are connected last. And you must do the same.

But short pins are: 1 and 2 (+3.3V), 8 and 9 (+5V), 11 (GND, activity), 14 and 15 (+12V).

So 1-pin switch is not enough. And 2-pins too.

I assume the one will be the black one.

Voltage difference between connected pins without zero and ground may damage your device...

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