HDD GURU FORUMS

I have bought a second internal Seagate HDD for my Vista computer. But each time I try to access it after around 10 mins, there is a few seconds delay and a sound like the HDD is just starting. The power saving options for both disks in the control panel are switched off.

Is there any software that would enable me to check whether the drive is indeed sleeping or not? And how to set it to always run?

Try contacting Seagate. Maybe it is that way for a reason. It might save your drive in the end. Why is this such a problem. For me I would not be concerned over all of this. What is a second delay when trying to access this drive when it is asleep. Maybe if you try and change this function you will have problems. Check on it before continueing. Might save your data

@Tabu what is the full model of your drive ?
Check power supply and power cable, if power settings on windows are set correctly that should not happen.

The full model of my drive is ST3500410AS ATA

It wouldn't be a problem with one second delay. I am more concerned of starting and stopping the disk many times a day, it might decrease the lifetime of the disk.

Besides, even my usb external disk (also Seagate) can be configured to run constantly without problems. So why can't internal disk? (I am not 100% sure it is the case, it is just the sound and delay indicating the disk stops and starts).

It shouldn't happend ....
Try to change power cable, either its a power supply problem or a Hard Drive problem.

Maybe it is a setting preconfigured in the external enclosure you are using?

@HddGuy, he is using the drive inside the pc :

Besides, even my usb external disk (also Seagate) can be configured to run constantly without problems. So why can't internal disk?

For me I never use Vista and here people do not like that program at all because of all the configuration problems inside of it. But that is besides the case.

On your mother board you need to check on your SATA configuration. Normally if they were smart when they put this thing together your master HD should be on SATA1. If they gave you a book on your MB you can check this one out. If there is no book then try to find your configuration on Internet to check to see what port you master drive is on. After that then hook up next to SATA 2 your second hard drive. Normally they will attach your CD ROM if they have used SATA which is the norm for the industry now adays will be on two. Move it off two and hook up your second SATA drive to two. Then hook up the CD ROM drive to three. If you read the manual on the MB this is the correct configuration to do when installing new devices to your computer. There could also be a configuration problem in your SATA port on the MB that needs to be addressed too.

@poehere
I don't agree.
For me only 3 things can be happening :
1 - Something at OS level is sending the "Sleep" command to the drive. (i guess it's ruled out for what the OP have stated)
2 - Instable power supply that leads to the drive loose power from time to time even for a short time, needing to re-start and re-calibrate.
3 - Spindle problem with the drive.

I Can't see how changing the SATA port can help on this one. If the port was bad the drive wouldn't be detected at all neither work under windows. Even if so, problem would be with data transference.

Read you manual on new MB. I install them here all the time. I build computers and new configuration to work with material correctly needs to be followed. That is why I am saying this one. If you do not configure your MB and bios correctly this causes the same problems. It is just something to check. It is a new system from what I can understand he is saying. He can also increase his power supply from I think they install inside is about 350 to 400W to a larger one that handles 500 to 750W if he pleases to do this one too to check your theroy.

... the drive is lazy and wants to sleep !

You are lazy in your answer and need to understand all behind the make up inside the MB and chip configuration before supplying answers to things like this. If you are an expert on the construction of the computer and can put one together and configure it then please by all means answer correctly. I do this for a living and need to know the correct make up and configuration of all material on the market today. I am giving advice from experience and not just giving advice for the sake of giving. Sorry about all that but I understand why this is happening and give the correct advice to configure it and make it work according to the make up of the mother board. There is a lot more to problems than just inside the hard drive. Some drives stop working and quit not because of drive problems but because of hardware problems inside the system. The system appears to be working fine but inside the memory there is a bad chip that is going bad. It will still start the computer but the OS can now detect this and shuts down to protect the drive from destroying itself.

you are an expert on the construction of the computer and can put one together and configure it then please by all means answer correctly.

Yes, i can do that.

There is a lot more to problems than just inside the hard drive.

Of course.

The system appears to be working fine but inside the memory there is a bad chip that is going bad.

Why do you say that ? What lead you to conclude that the memory is bad ?

It will still start the computer but the OS can now detect this and shuts down to protect the drive from destroying itself.

The drive doesn't shut down, it just enters "sleep" mode, like when you set power saving to sleep the drive after some idle time, like when you supply the ATA sleep command to do a PCB HOT SWAP, like when you send a terminal "Z" to a Seagate drive under level 2....

The power saving options for both disks in the control panel are switched off.

I almost forgot ...
Try to check on BIOS if there are any power saving control that are putting your drive in power save mode.

I never said that this problem is due to memory. I simply stated "there is a lot of other things that cause problems besides just the hard drives themselves. It could be a memory problem inside the MB that causes a hard drive to not be recognized by the OS or give an indication that there is a problem with the hard drive. I simply stated a fact not that this was his problem.

When memory starts to go bad, or there is dust inside the processor fan, or a video card starting to act up this too can cause an indication inside the program of windows that the hard drive or program has a problem. That is not always the case. If you understand the material and you see these errors start off with this before attempting to worry about messing up your hard drive. That is all I stated nothing more.

@poehere
Ok, so i have a drive that works fine, windows pick it up fine, power saving is turned off in windows, windows pick the drive and works ok. I go away for a short lengt of time and when i try to access the drive again there is a few seconds delay and a sound like the HDD is just starting, just like when you set up windows to put the drive to sleep after some time to save power. The problem is, i didn't set it up that way, windows is not set up to do that, but is happening.
Do you really think that this can be caused by :

When memory starts to go bad, or there is dust inside the processor fan, or a video card starting to act up this too can cause an indication inside the program of windows that the hard drive or program has a problem.

Just remember that the system don't crash, there are no BSOD, the drive don't disappear, there are no errors, just the delay of the drive resuming from the sleep mode, nothing more, nothing less.
Can you expalin how a bad CPU or Memory or Video Card can cause that to happen without affecting anything else including the functionality of the affected drive itself ?

Give it up you are not understand what I am saying at all. I never said this is a memory problem on this issue. Get that one.

IN COMPUTERS WHEN THEY ARE IN USE FOR AWHILE OR SOME TIME AND ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU HAVE LOSS OF YOUR WINDOWS OS AND RECEIVE A BLUE SCREEN IT DOES NOT ALWAYS MEANS THAT YOUR HARD DRIVE IS BAD. GET THE POINT.

Second I had bought all brand new material and built a system but kept having trouble with my installation of the program. I finally pulled the memory out and switched it with another computer. Ran great in the other computer and the other memory ran great in the one I was building. Sometime there are things that you just don't see and have to have a good understand of in order to repair them. I could go on but what is the use. You should understand what I am saying if you understand computers.

His problem is in the configuration of his mother board and the bios. OK

Ok.

My motherboard is Asus P5B, my power supply adaptor is 450W. Here is the picture how my HDD is connected and P5B schema. The problematic one is on top and is connected to SATA2. The bottom one is my original HDD and is connected to SATA1. The CD-ROM is connected to the vertical IDE socket.
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5843/diskp.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/108/asusy.jpg

I checked the BIOS settings but there seems to be no specific port configuration settings for SATA. There are no power saving options for SATA/disk.

The HDD is falling to sleep approximately 8 seconds after it wakes up. Then it can sleep long if there is no request, or it can repeat waking up and sleeping many times every 15 seconds if there are disk requests (e.g. from programs installed on that disk). So I am sure this is not a normal situation and it is crazy.

I will complain to the service who installed the disk, unless someone can tell me from the picture that something is wrong.