The present invention provides a method and a control apparatus (1) for sequentially controlling the spinning up of a number of IDE_HDDs (30) included in one computer or network server. The method and apparatus works by assigning different ID numbers to different pairs of IDE_HDDs and causing a delay between the start of spin up of each pair. The control apparatus includes a host (10), a plurality of controllers (20), a plurality of power switches (40) and a plurality of IDE_HDDs. When the control apparatus is booted up, each controller receives an ID number from the host and delays activating the power switches connecting a power supply (50) to the IDE_HDDs by a time proportional to the ID number. The present invention thereby avoids too high an instantaneous peak current during booting up and prevents the power supply from being burnt out.