Patent ID: 7836319

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling power of a storage device, comprising: a power supply; an optical disk device (ODD) driver configured to control an operation of an optical disk device; a switch connected between the power supply and the optical disk device driver, the switch being turned on in response to a control signal to thereby perform on operation of the power supplied to the ODD driver; and a management program part configured to perform power control operations for multiple devices of a computer including the optical disk device, the power control operations comprising: when a monitored state of the optical disk device reveals that the optical disk device has been idle for more than a predetermined time period, controlling the switch to turn off power to the optical disk device while maintaining power to at least one of the multiple devices of the computer, and in response to receiving input of a predetermined key associated with controlling a function performed by the optical disk device after turning off power to the optical disk device, controlling the switch to supply power to the optical disk device and determining to maintain a power state of at least one of the multiple devices of the computer.