Hard drive doesn't go to sleep


  1. Cyborg31
    Posts : 52
    Windows 7 Pro x64
       New #1

    Hard drive doesn't go to sleep


    I set the hard drive to stop spinning after 4 hours of idle activity but it doesn't ever go to sleep. If I set the time interval to < 1 hour like 45 min then it will go to sleep.

    I'm not talking about the computer going to sleep/hibernating, I mean the spinning of the hard drive.
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  3. JaidynM
    Posts : 8,398
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64/Windows 8 Consumer Preview x64/Ubuntu 11.04
       New #2

    Sing it a lullaby.

    Could you please fill out your System Specs?
    System Info - See Your System Specs

    Also, what are you using to set the sleep option?
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  4. Corazon
    Posts : 1,781
    Windows 7 Professional SP1 32-bit
       New #3

    Just my own opinion, but...

    ...in all honesty, I've never understood the point of there even being an option to put the HD to sleep after some idle time. This is Windows...Windows has a habit of accessing the HD all the time, at the very least a few brief flickers per minute or so. It doesn't ever give the HD any chance to truly idle for any appreciable amount of time, so I've always wondered how this could even be expected to work.

    Am I wrong with this?
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  6. Cyborg31
    Posts : 52
    Windows 7 Pro x64
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    I'm using Windows 7 Pro x64, Q6600, 4 GB RAM, GTX 275, 500 GB 7200 RPM for Windows, and two 2 TB WD Greens for media. Don't think the specs have anything to do with this... and I'm using the Power Options -> Advanced Power Settings.

    @Corazon That's what I thought too but if set at 45 min, the HDD does stop spinning and starts spinning again when it needs to access the HDD. It's noticeable because I can hear the HDD spinning up and Windows lags for 2-3 seconds while it accesses the disk. Frankly I don't care if the Windows drive doesn't go to sleep, I just want the two media drives to go to sleep when I'm not watching a video or accessing them in any way. One of them started to get Current Pending Sector warnings that I managed to fix by zero-writing the drive. I figured it'd help if it wasn't spinning 24/7 since I do leave my computer on all the time.
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  7. JaidynM
    Posts : 8,398
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64/Windows 8 Consumer Preview x64/Ubuntu 11.04
       New #5

    What performance plan are you using? If you aren't already, change the performance plan to High and then try setting the hard drive to sleep from there. Also try setting the time to the lowest possible to see if it sleeps at all.
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  8. Cyborg31
    Posts : 52
    Windows 7 Pro x64
    Thread Starter
       New #6

    Tried that, doesn't work.

    Has anyone actually got this working?
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