The key problem is this: Windows since always [i.e. probably since 1995] does not allow to set individual timers for each of the disks; or at least exclude some of them from overall setting
And as practice have shown me now, with [at least my version of] Windows 10 the behavior is worst than on Windows 7, as more unknown processes access the drive- thus waking it up unnecessary. I also get often hang ups of system because for some stupid reason a premium software like for example Corel DRAW decides to access the retired disk when I am doing something in / with that software. [And yes I have turned off pagefile.sys and indexing for that drive and it does not host any scratch / temporal files]
I have a silent case. I have a totally passive UPC. I have passive radiators [all radiators are passive, as I already pointed it out in the Noise Reduction section of my extremely popular Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide V.1 - #6 by Zerow] on which I put fans so silent, that I hear them only when I put them next to my ear. So you can imagine how an HDD is a disruptive in such environment
As it turns out, I have excellent hearing, and not only for my age. That is what my doctor says after performing multiple test on me. In a matter of fact I always been oversensitive- and now are even more [and that is why an audio specialist M.D. came into my life]
The times where I could sleep without earplugs is long gone. And [long story short] it is very hard to get good ones
In a matter of fact I took that approach as a workaround. Unfortunately I am unable to upgrade from that noisy drive in question, as I need a bigger and quicker one- because I need at least 12TB and I do not happen to have so much money for such HDD. And even if I did have I would still not buy a new one because the prices are like from 2016. As for the SSDs- there are almost no big ones like that and those few that exist costs more than what I earn in a year
What I did instead was to take my 10000RPM HDD out from a box that made it practically inaudible and put in it that noisy drive, while replacing the 10000RPM with yet another affordable SSD [which I have a few]. It works for now because it is a summer and a lot of noise is coming from the outside world. But this is an expedient, as when the winter come it will be much quieter in my neighborhood- and that drive in that box is audible to some extent even now. [Plus there is the problem of those often hang ups]
Ans so I will have to return in a few weeks to this topic and to the quest of finding a way to turn off a drive for good, with some script / shortcut