2nd hard disk spins down after each file access.

Question

XPS-410
Vista Home Premium
2 Gig ram

I added a second hard drive to my XPS-410, a Western Digital WD500AAKS. It spins down after each file access even though the power management setting is set to 60 minutes. This is only a problem with the second hard drive, the main hard drive works fine. It goes like this.

Access a file, wait for the drive to spin up, the first file reads normally, then 10 seconds later the drive spins down.

Then access a second file, wait for the drive to spin up, the second file reads normally, then 10 seconds later the drive spins down.

Then access a third file, wait for the drive to spin up, the third file reads normally, then 10 seconds later the drive spins down.

This is nuts. I have the hard disk spin down setting set at 60 minutes. Obviously that 60 minute setting is being ignored. What's going on here and how do I fix it?

Tom

mombodog · Answer

It could be a faulty drive i guess, never heard of this before, strange behavior.   Try 'Load Defaults' in the maintenance section of the bios, save changes on exit.   similar issue, only it is the bootdrive that spins down during the boot process, locking up the PC. http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/hard-drive-support/11705-hard-drives-spin-down-during-boot-up-help.html

tlveik · Answer

Interesting link you have there, although my problem is mostly different. I have no problems at boot time.

It's hard for me to believe that the hard drive may be faulty because this power management issue is the only problem I have with it. It works flawlessly otherwise. My guess is that it's a Vista problem.

I tried loading defaults in the bios as you suggested and that didn't change the spin-down behavior.

I did run across one other person with very similar spin-down behavior on a usenet newsgroup. The difference with his situation was that the spin-down timing was more random, but still much quicker than the power management setting would allow. No solutions there yet.

Tom

mombodog · Answer

Video drivers play a big role in power management in Windows, I wonder it it could be that.

haiduc · Answer

Same problem here (with a new Inspiron 530). Secondary SATA drive (Samsung HD501LJ), spins up when accessing a file, spins down some seconds after file access. Hard drive sleep time is set to 60 minutes. 1st drive stays on as it should. Did you find any solution yet? I guess this is Vista-related, I'll soon be able to tell as I'm planning to downgrade to XP ... Regards

mombodog · Answer

Go to Control Panel/Power Options/Change Plan Settings(choose the one with the radio button ticked) then choose 'change advanced power settings' then expand 'hard disk' 'turn off hard disk after' see what it is set to. Change the setting by a few minutes and hit OK then save changes.   Restart the PC, see if hard drive behavior changes.

haiduc · Answer

Thanks! That seems to have fixed it. I changed it to some other value and my 2nd hard drive stays on now. =) Another undocumented feature :>

tlveik · Answer

@mombodog wrote:

Go to Control Panel/Power Options/Change Plan Settings(choose the one with the radio button ticked) then choose "change advanced power settings" then expand 'hard disk" "turn off hard disk after" see what it is set to. Change the setting by a few minutes and hit OK then save changes.

Restart the PC, see if hard drive behavior changes.

I tried adjusting the "turn off hard disk after" setting a couple minutes and that doesn't help me. My second drive still spins down seconds after each file access. The only thing that helps is to make that setting "never". Then the drive keeps spinning. I'd rather have it spin down down after an hour though.

mombodog · Answer

You might check your bios for any advanced power settings.

tlveik · Answer

@mombodog wrote:

You might check your bios for any advanced power settings.

We've been through that already earlier in this thread. That didn't turn up anything. Is there any way to separate the "spin down after" setting for the two drives? Any useful registry tweaks?

mombodog · Answer

'Is there any way to separate the 'spin down after' setting for the two drives? Any useful registry tweaks? '   Not that I have found.

tlveik · Answer

I finally found some acknowledgment that this is a real problem that other people are seeing. There is much discussion about it in this thread. http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1994652&SiteID=17

mombodog · Answer

From that thread,   '  For those who would prefer to never have their hard disk spin down, please change the policy in the 'Power Options' control panel or via the powercfg command-line: powercfg -x -disk-timeout-ac 0 powercfg -x -disk-timeout-dc 0 powercfg -setactive scheme_current This should disable the default power-saving features by preventing the disks from spinning down.  You should no longer experience the 'lag time' in waiting for the disk to spin back up.  However, you will no longer see the power savings gained by spinning the disk down while it is not in use.'   I have always used this setting on my Windows installs, I guess that is why I have not experienced this problem.

Storage, Drives & Media

2nd hard disk spins down after each file access.

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