Hard Drive Powering Off

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PiERiT

2[H]4U
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Oct 8, 2010
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As of today, I can very clearly hear my data hard drive (not my OS drive) powering off in my computer case. As soon as I do something that requires access to it, I can hear it power back on. I'm struggling to figure out what is doing this and if I should be concerned.

Within the past week I replaced my motherboard, CPU, and RAM, so it might be some power saving function on the board? I also upgraded to the latest Windows 10 build, so it might be something in there? Or the hard drive could be on its last legs? There is a setting for it in the BIOS, but it's turned off, as is the Windows setting. SeaTools tests came back clean, so I really have no idea. If anyone has any thoughts on where I can look, I'd appreciate it.
 
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if you have a green or power saving hard drive(ie. WD green drive) then it is designed to spin down when not in use.
 
Nah, this is a Toshiba something or other, same thing I had prior to the motherboard and Windows upgrades, and it didn't happen then.
 
That setting is already disabled.

It doesn't really bother me if it's supposed to be happening; I'm more worried that it shouldn't be happening and my drive is about to die.
 
@tonyyy: that has nothing to do with spindown. WD Green has Headparking, which means the head that reads and writes is parked and the forces that overcome the permanent magnet are powered down, saving about 0,4 watts of power. It will not do anything about the motor that spins the platters at ~5400rpm.

@PiERiT: if this concerns an older drive (why did you not mention the harddrive model?) it is possible you got a problem with the bearings. Such drives - before the fluid bearing drives - can make a lot of noise when they are older. I have been told this does not affect their reliability, but does increase the 'motor' noise that is always on when the drive is spinning. I.e. it does not affect seek noises when the drive is rattling when being used, but affects the humm-noise that is much louder than a new drive. It supposedly does not happen with liquid bearing drives.
 
I honestly don't know the exact model, just that it's a Toshiba. I am sure it's the powering on/off sound, though, as I can also hear it when I turn my system on or off.

It's also happening while actively in use, so I don't think it's anything to do with power saving. I tried reseating the cables, so I guess I'm out of things to try other than waiting for it to die or replacing it?
 
I think I got it... when I got my new board, I also updated Intel RST, and there's a setting in there for Link Power Management that defaults to Enabled. Turned that off and it hasn't happened since.
 
What does RST do for non RAID setups? Pretty sure can just remove it if you aren't using RAID.
 
Ocellaris said:
What does RST do for non RAID setups? Pretty sure can just remove it if you aren't using RAID.
Click to expand...

Not sure. I only installed it to get rid of the yellow warning sign in Device Manager, as it's apparently needed for one of my devices.

I spoke too soon anyways, as it continues to happen. It also happens outside of Windows, when sitting in the BIOS for example, so it has to be a bug with my board/BIOS or a faulty drive.
 
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