Second HDD randomly freezing problem...

[Omnomnick]

Hey guys,

I've recently got a brand new second hard drive in my PC, a 1.5Gb SATA drive, but on random occasions my PC will freeze for a few seconds at a time; while it's frozen you can hear the second hard drive winding up before it clunks and the system runs as normal.

This is like the 4th hard drive I've had Overclockers UK replace, the first model I got had exactly the same problem. You guys got any clue as to what it might be?

I've been told it could be the power saving function on the second HDD causing it to overspin when it's needed; but I've downloaded some software (CrystalDiskInfo) which allows me to turn off the power saving function but it looks like the option doesn't save or the hard drive physically turns the option back on.

I can't see a valid reason for this to happen; my computer is all reasonably modern, everything except the CD drives and primary hard drive (and no, the problem doesn't occur with just the primary HDD in without the second)

Cheers guys.

 

[Ennui]

It is what you say. The HDD will spin down when not in direct use, so whenever it's accessed after a certain period of inactivity it will hang for a few seconds to spin back up. This is why I use a 1TB drive for win7, games and apps and another 1tb drive for data alone.

I don't know any way to fix it, it's something I've always dealt with when I access my file archive after not using the hd in question for an hour or two.

 

[Omnomnick]

Well just now I was literally sitting playing on my DS, the PC completely idle (not even the mouse was moving) and it randomly did it? I have no idea why it would do that.

 

[No Limit]

Do you have the page file stored on it?

Power saving options can be found in your control panel, you shouldn't have a need to install 3rd party software. Under there you can turn off the feature that turns your HDD off.

 

[Omnomnick]

The only thing on the hard drive is a folder for FRAPS videos and a Windows Backup file so no it should hardly ever be running.

I just noticed on the Disk Management section that both hard drives are listed as Primary Partition. Should this be like this or should the F:/ be Extended Partition?

 

[VirusType2]

What OS are you using?

I agree with No Limit. It sounds as if it may just be a power setting putting the HDD to sleep, and the inherent lag of waking it up as the disk gets up to speed.

For Windows 7, press the Windows Start Button, type power into the search box, and click Power Options. If you need more help, there are plenty of online guides on setting up power settings.

I personally keep my HDD spinning at all times ("never turn off"). I have a theory that it should last longer. Not only that, but you never have lag from the HDDs waking up that you are experiencing. So far, I've never lost a HDD. However, after 'so many' years, eventual [mechanical] HDD failure is inevitable, of course.

 

[No Limit]

I share that same theory about not turning off the drive constantly. I don't know if there is any real basis behind it but it seems like the motor having to constantly stop then spin up again is not a good thing.

However, as I understand it if the drive is turned off, even if it's secondary, your computer goes in to sleep mode. So if that's not happening I don't think your drive is turning off.

Like I said you might want to take a look at the page file, I think by default if you have a second HD windows will use it. A google search will tell you how to change settings for the page file, this is the first link that came up for me:

http://forums.techarena.in/tips-tweaks/1177754.htm

I would disable the page file on your secondary drive for now. Also for troubleshooting purposes I would also turn off any backups you have running that use this drive as well as turn off system restore on that drive.

 

[Omnomnick]

Sounds like you guys have a plan. How would I actually go about stopping my drive from being switched off constantly?

 

[No Limit]

Just follow what Virus said above:

For Windows 7, press the Windows Start Button, type power into the search box, and click Power Options. If you need more help, there are plenty of online guides on setting up power settings.

If you have a different OS than windows 7 just google "change power options for [insert OS here]".

But I will just repeat, you will want to follow all the other stuff I said above as I don't think it's an issue with your power settings as I think your computer goes in to sleep mode when any hard drive is powered down.

 

[Omnomnick]

Cheers, I did try what Virus said earlier on but I didn't have much time to find out where in the advanced settings the option was. I just found it and switched it to Never switch off, I'll repost again if I think the problem still occurs.

As for now, thanks guys!

 

[VirusType2]

I share that same theory about not turning off the drive constantly. I don't know if there is any real basis behind it but it seems like the motor having to constantly stop then spin up again is not a good thing.

Yeah, I would expect the only thing harder on a motor than getting up to speed is braking (stopping). Maintaining velocity requires very little effort (once up to speed, it's almost effortless). Not only that, but when a mechanical HDD goes to sleep it parks the heads, and more moving parts come in to play, which means more things that can fail.

If in constant rotation (never stopped spinning), I believe the motor may last up to 10-15 years; the high quality bearings some manufacturers use are rated to last 10-17+ years of use. I think the magnetic surface will probably start to corrupt before either, no matter what you do.

So in my opinion, the only time one should power down drives in a desktop is if they are not going to be used for more than say 12 hours (that's just my estimate, which is longer than just going to bed for the night); in a portable device like a laptop, you can use a much shorter time frame to save battery life, but remember that starting and stopping uses a lot of power, so you don't want it to constantly turn off when you might be using it in a few minutes.


Of course, if anyone would rather save electricity or make your power supply last longer, you may prefer powering down your computer before you go to bed. I find that restarting Windows once every 2-4 days is helpful in preventing glitches that may cause errors or crashes.

When you "shut down" a computer through Windows, the HDDs will brake and then park before the power is cut. When you simply "restart Windows", or "reboot", they do not. To say it another way, "Restart Windows" will not spin down or park your HDDs.

Personally, I put HDDs paramount (more important than other components); parts can be replaced, data cannot always be.

Note: Solid state HDDs are a completely different story regarding everything above

I think your computer goes in to sleep mode when any hard drive is powered down.

There are separate settings for putting the computer to sleep.

Even if the Windows HDD/partition goes to sleep while Windows is awake, you can still use Windows. Windows will only wake it up when anything (you/Windows services/applications) attempts to access the Windows partition.

 

[No Limit]

I will have to try that, I just don't see how windows can turn off a hard drive and still function. Just because I don't understand it doesn't mean its not true.