HDD Spin Down - Storage Spaces

Question

I would like to know if anybody got some kind of solution, or has gotten any further then me.  
I want to build an application that can monitor you HDD energy consumption. (spin down status)  and the temperature. 
I've figured out how to get the temperature from WMI   but the spin down status is proving to be kind of impossible.
http://superuser.com/questions/400213/see-if-hdd-is-in-sleep-mode-for-windows
I understand the only windows has control over the HDD spin down of each drive.   The problem is , if I have a drive that is spun down, and i start to try and get the information about its status using WMI,  the drive is spinning back up. 
Also , i want to monitor Storage Spaces individual drive status.   If i'm making a storage space jbod, (no redundancy),  I would like to know the hdd spinning status of each drive.

Answer 1

Maybe use a
performance counter and if the disk is idle for some time then you should know it is spun down I suppose. Although you would have to test that. And the app probably requires admin privileges to access that info.
Run below code with admin privileges. Select button1 to fill ListBox1. Selected item in ListBox1, select Button2 to fill ListBox2. Select item in ListBox2, select Button3 to fill ListBox3. Start timer.
Stop timer to begin new selection process from ListBox1 for ListBox2 and ListBox3 or leave timer running if changing selection in ListBox3.
Option Strict On
Public Class Form1
'Code used is from below two links.
'Walkthrough: Retrieving Categories and Counters
'http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2fh4x1xb(v=vs.90).aspx
'A Quick Introduction to Performance Counters in Visual Studio 2012
'http://www.codeguru.com/columns/vb/a-quick-introduction-to-performance-counters-in-visual-studio-2012.htm
Private pc As PerformanceCounter
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Me.Location = New Point(CInt((Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Width / 2) - (Me.Width / 2)), CInt((Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Height / 2) - (Me.Height / 2)))
Me.Text = "Performance Counters"
ListBox1.Sorted = True
ListBox2.Sorted = True
ListBox3.Sorted = True
Button4.BackColor = Color.Lime
Button4.Text = "Start Timer"
Timer1.Interval = 1000
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim myCat As PerformanceCounterCategory()
Dim i As Integer
ListBox1.Items.Clear()
myCat = PerformanceCounterCategory.GetCategories
For i = 0 To myCat.Length - 1
ListBox1.Items.Add(myCat(i).CategoryName)
Next
End Sub
Dim InstanceNames() As String
Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
ListBox2.Items.Clear()
If ListBox1.SelectedIndex <> -1 Then
Dim mycat As New PerformanceCounterCategory(ListBox1.SelectedItem.ToString())
InstanceNames = mycat.GetInstanceNames()
If InstanceNames.Count > 0 Then
For Each Item In InstanceNames
ListBox2.Items.Add(Item)
Next
End If
End If
End Sub
Dim Counters As New System.Collections.ArrayList
Private Sub Button3_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click
ListBox3.Items.Clear()
Counters.Clear()
If ListBox1.SelectedIndex <> -1 And ListBox2.SelectedIndex <> -1 Then
Dim mycat As New PerformanceCounterCategory(ListBox1.SelectedItem.ToString())
Counters.AddRange(mycat.GetCounters(ListBox2.SelectedItem.ToString))
Dim counter As PerformanceCounter
For Each counter In Counters
ListBox3.Items.Add(counter.CounterName)
Next
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Button4_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button4.Click
If Button4.Text = "Start Timer" Then
Button4.BackColor = Color.OrangeRed
Button4.Text = "Stop Timer"
Timer1.Start()
Else
Button4.BackColor = Color.Lime
Button4.Text = "Start Timer"
Timer1.Stop()
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
RichTextBox1.Text = ""
If ListBox1.SelectedIndex <> -1 And ListBox2.SelectedIndex <> -1 And ListBox3.SelectedIndex <> -1 Then
pc = New PerformanceCounter()
pc.CategoryName = ListBox1.SelectedItem.ToString
pc.InstanceName = ListBox2.SelectedItem.ToString
pc.CounterName = ListBox3.SelectedItem.ToString
RichTextBox1.AppendText(pc.CounterHelp.ToString & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "RawValue = " & pc.RawValue.ToString & vbCrLf & "NextValue = " & pc.NextValue.ToString)
End If
End Sub
End Class
La vida loca