What is it that's booting up my external hard drives?

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  1. Posts : 21
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #1

    What is it that's booting up my external hard drives?


    Hi,


    I currently have two USB hard drives (1TB WD - 1TB Maxtor) which both power down after 5 minutes of inactivity or so.

    However, every now and again one of them will boot up and begin spinning while the computer is still sitting idle. I've had a look at MSCONFIG/Task Manager and cant see anything obvious which would be responsible for this behaviour. Is there any way I can determine which process is causing the drives to power up again? A utility for example that could detail which processes are linked to each device?


    Many thanks.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 21
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #2

    No one?
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 1,045
    Win8/8.1,Win7-U64, Vista U64, uncounted Linux distor's
       #3

    Look in MSConfig, both "startup" and "services" WD installs two or more programs for the external drives, those may be the reason the drives wake up.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 21
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Hi,


    I've had a look in both but other than Microsoft's services, all that's running is:

    Realtek HD Audio Manager
    Apple Mobile Device
    Norton Internet Security

    It could may well be Norton that's the culprit since it insists on performing background checks irregardless of how you configure it.

    I was hoping there was a utility available which could inform of processes as they launch. That way I could determine what it is that's causing the issue next time the drive goes to power up.

    Guess I'll just need to disable processes one by and one and try decipher what it is that's responsible.


    Cheers.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 1,045
    Win8/8.1,Win7-U64, Vista U64, uncounted Linux distor's
       #5

    Try it with Norton disabled. I would recommend you remove Norton and go with MSE and Malwarebytes, both are free and work well together.

    I have MSE and MBAM running and well run SuperAntiSpyware about once a week to catch anything the first two miss. Only thing that I ever see is adware that if MBAM doesn't kill it, SAS does.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 1,379
    Win7 Pro 32-bit, Win8 Pro 32-bit
       #6

    Norton has the ability to disable scan on drives. As a test, I would disable the Norton scan and detection for the two USB drives and see if that prevents them from being wakened. I have that on my PC as I have some very large USB drives and don't want to scan them over and over.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 21
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #7

    madcratebuilder said:
    Try it with Norton disabled. I would recommend you remove Norton and go with MSE and Malwarebytes, both are free and work well together.

    I have MSE and MBAM running and well run SuperAntiSpyware about once a week to catch anything the first two miss. Only thing that I ever see is adware that if MBAM doesn't kill it, SAS does.
    Mark Phelps said:
    Norton has the ability to disable scan on drives. As a test, I would disable the Norton scan and detection for the two USB drives and see if that prevents them from being wakened. I have that on my PC as I have some very large USB drives and don't want to scan them over and over.
    Norton is certainly a likely candidate. I plan to temporarily disable it altogether and see if that makes any noticeable difference.

    Meanwhile, I've recorded a Task Manager "before and after" log with regards to everything running when the drive(s) begin to act up.

    So far, the only processes active which didn't seem to be in use beforehand are:

    dllhost.exe
    trustedinstaller.exe
    msiexec.exe
    wmiprvse.exe
    searchfilterhost.exe
    searchprotocolhost.exe

    Mark, how is it you disable Norton from auto-scanning drives at will? The only two relevant settings I can find with regards to background scans can be seen below. Are there any further configurations you're aware of? (NIS 18.7.2.3)

    Cheers.


      My Computer


  8. Posts : 24,479
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
       #8

    Try disabling Network Drives Scan.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 21
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Britton30 said:
    Try disabling Network Drives Scan.
    Roger that!
      My Computer


  10. NoN
    Posts : 4,166
    Windows 7 Professional SP1 - x64 [Non-UEFI Boot]
       #10

    Found that tutorial that might help you trace events:

    Devices - See Devices that are able to Wake Up the Computer

    Also, is there some "Allow Wake Timers" set in your power plan settings turned ON?
      My Computer


 
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