Windows 7 random drive spin up's

galgamec

galgamec

galgamec

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Joined
25 Aug 2010
Posts
3
Hi guys, I've upgraded mine and my girlfriends computers to run windows 7 a few weeks back, however, I I've come across a seemingly unusual problem.
Both computers are set up with 3 seperate 500 gig sata-2 hdds, a primary drive for the OS and 2 for storage (music & movies etc).
The problem is, while running games, watching movies etc (that are hosted on the primary drive) the 2nd and 3rd disks will randomly spin up and then power down anything from 15-45 seconds later. Not only is it rather annoying, but it is inducing a sense of paranoia about my computer security!

Any forum/google searches yield little information about this occuring on 7, there are a few old reports about it on Vista, yet no answers or solutions. If anyone could shed some light on this id be eternally grateful!

Few notes:
The drives are a mix match of different 500gig hdds (varying vendors).
Indexing is disabled on all drives.
The power options for powering drives down is disabled.

Thanks in advance, Galg!
 
The power options for powering drives down is disabled.
Click to expand...
You certain about that? Having only the secondary drives spin up / down suggests a power saving feature to me. Worth double checking...? Not calling you out here mate but I've disabled power saving options myself only to have Windows turn them back on again without notification.

Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings > Hard Disk > Turn off hard disk after: NEVER
 
If you're still having issues it might be worth trying to disable power management on the drive itself. Most manufacturers have diagnostic tools freely available that can turn on and off power saving and / or acoustic management. Most will work on other drives e.g. I've used Samsung's ES Tool on WD drives. Doesn't always allow you to change the APM settings but can't hurt to try. Now using Drive Power Manager since it can all be done within Windows but it is commercial software so probably best using the free tools first.
 
No, those settings will stop Windows from suspending the drive which causes the spin down. Of course as soon as the drive is accessed it has to spin up again and so on. By telling it not to suspend the drive it should stay on all the time.
 
Not neccessarily by you directly but if the system accesses the drive for whatever reason then it will pop out of suspend mode.

Have you tried the setting above? I promise it's not going to kill or otherwise harm your drive and easily reversed by re-activating the suspend timer. When I first moved to Win 7 I had exactly the same symptoms and this was the issue. If that doesn't work then no loss because you've just ruled out that problem and can look at other options for a solution. Honestly, I'm trying to help here.
 
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