Is this normal?

I have a 1.5 TB Seagate HDD for backup purposes only. After the computer boots, a couple of minutes later, it audibly spins down, clicks, and seems to turn off. If I try to access anything on it (directly or indirectly, such as when the system needs to access simple info like storage space, etc.), the system pauses for about 3 seconds or so while it 'wakes up.' After a few minutes of non-use, it spins down and stops again.

I've checked the power settings and what not and this is the only drive that does it. I have 2 other HDD's, one that I don't really use with the other being the OS drive, and neither turn off. It's not really a problem, as I would think that having the storage drive turn off might save it from wear and tear, but the noise is kind of loud. Is this normal and is there cause for concern?

Is it a "green" drive? The "green" drives out there are designed to do that to save power.

My Samsung spinpoints do this as well... sucks when I want to access them quickly and when I shutdown.

There should be a power saving option in Windows for when to turn off hard drives in the advanced section, by default I think windows has it at 20 min. If it is not that, then the drive itself must be a power saving drive and you should switch your main OS drive to another type of drive.

aphellyon said:

My Samsung spinpoints do this as well... sucks when I want to access them quickly and when I shutdown.

Click to expand...

I was considering a pair of these drives for RAID-0. Are these your OS drives?


For the other replies, the Seagate in question is NOT my OS drive--it's backup only. It's also not a 'green' drive. I really don't see the point of green drives to save a whopping 5 watts (maybe) on desktops anyway. Laptops and organizations that utilize lots of HDD's, different story, but that's beside the point.

I guess this is normal then. Thanks!

PicodeGallo said:

I was considering a pair of these drives for RAID-0. Are these your OS drives?

Click to expand...

No, I have two of them in RAID1 for backup and media storage. I only access them occasionally, so I don't mind them having to "wakeup"... other than when I shut my system down. They are the 7200rpm 1TB f3 drives, so I didn't think they were "green" like their 5400rpm ones... but they still sleep, even with the windows power saving mode off. Other than that, I like them. They seem fairly quiet for spinners and imo they have a great price point, considering their capacity, reliability and RAIDability.

You can set any drive to sleep via the windows prompt. Its one of the things I disable typically just to make sure I don't have to deal with slow downs, but now adays I only have a single HDD on typically, besides my SSD's.

If there is a utility for configuring the drives, you may be able to change the spin-down time, along with other settings. This is usually on a drive-per-drive basis, but most manufacturers provide some sort of configuration tool.

Ditto but after reading these replies I see that it is a pretty common issues in more than just this device. Mine only seems to do it when I am trying to get to a file fast or if I am in a bad mood haha. If there is a way to complete reprogram that I would love to know how because one day I fear my anger will win

lobanw said:

If there is a way to complete reprogram that I would love to know how because one day I fear my anger will win

Click to expand...

There were several suggestions that cover pretty much any scenario. I'm not sure what else you are looking for.