Method for controlling power down of a hard disk drive in a computer

An integrated device electronics (IDE) driver 40 operating in conjunction with a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) driver (14), wherein both the IDE driver (40) and BIOS driver (14) are capable of powering down a hard disk drive (18). The IDE driver (40) monitors accesses to an alternate status register (32) by the BIOS driver (14). Upon detecting an access to the alternative status register (32), the IDE driver (40) commences writing any uncommitted data to the hard disk drive (18). The IDE driver (40) inhibits power down by the BIOS driver (14) until it finishes committing any uncommitted data to the hard disk drive (18). After all uncommitted data is committed to the hard disk drive (18), the BIOS driver (14) is permitted to power down the hard disk drive (18). A timer is set to reactivate the IDE driver (40). If the hard disk drive (18) was put to sleep, a reset from the BIOS driver (14) must occur before the IDE driver (40) can access the hard disk drive (18). If the hard disk drive (18) was placed in standby mode, the IDE driver (40) can reactivate and access the hard disk drive (18). In either case, the IDE driver (40) queues request for access to the hard disk drive (18) until such request can be performed after the hard disk drive (18) is powered-up.