Unable to get HDD to turn off after specified time

[TORGUL]

Hey guys. I hope this thread is going in the correct section of the forums. I am experiencing problems with getting my hard disk drives to turn off when not in use. I have changed the settings in power options under the ''balanced'' preferred power plan and have set it to turn off after 90 minutes if the drives are idle. This doesn't seem to do anything, i have tried setting a different time limit, still no joy with that either. Anyone know what could be causing this? It did used to work perfectly before when my PC was new but now it has stopped working. No idea why. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64bit. Any help with this issue is welcome. Thank you.

 

[tephen04]

Did you check the Task Manager for running programs? if possible, can you include in your next post all the running processes? Press CTRL + ALT + DELETE to access Task Manager.

 

[gregrocker]

Establish a Clean Boot from http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/220165-troubleshooting-steps-windows-7-a.html.

I'd also work through the other steps to go over your install closely, learn more about it.

Compare the install you have to the perfect install compiled in http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164 as there's nothing like having the best install one can have.

 

[rdl]

Windows will rarely leave your c drive alone long enough for it to spin down, but any other drives should be shutting down after the time you have them set for.

 

[TORGUL]

Did you check the Task Manager for running programs? if possible, can you include in your next post all the running processes? Press CTRL + ALT + DELETE to access Task Manager.

There are no programs running off the drives. None of the other HDDs are in use. Except for c drive. If they are not in use, they should turn off after the time i specified. I am not keen of doing a fresh install, as this will lose all my customizations and settings. And i don't want to install everything all over again. So i need to find another solution, if at all possible. Here is a screenshot of all the running programs on my system: http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/6059/yzxm.png

 

[rdl]

You have an awful lot of processes running, but my best guess is Avast and/or Windows Search Indexing Service is periodically scanning the drives.

You can start Task Manager (control+alt+delete > Start Task Manager), then click on the button in the lower right corner of the Task Manager window marked "Resource Monitor". There you can see which programs are actually using the disk drives.

 

[TORGUL]

You have an awful lot of processes running, but my best guess is Avast and/or Windows Search Indexing Service is periodically scanning the drives.

You can start Task Manager (control+alt+delete > Start Task Manager), then click on the button in the lower right corner of the Task Manager window marked "Resource Monitor". There you can see which programs are actually using the disk drives.

Is there any way of disabling all the processors that may be running of off a specific drive, apart from c drive? I don't think i have set my AV to run any periodic scans, so it has got to be another program causing it. I have opened Resource Monitor as you mentioned, and after watching it for a short while i noticed that only drive letters C and E are active under 'disk activity', and it's showing a list of programs running from those drive locations. The Resource Monitor doesn't list any programs running from drive letters D and F, which are the HDDs that should be turning off automatically. I thought of windows search possibly being the cause of this, so i did disable it earlier today under 'services' and by right clicking on the drives and unchecking where it says about allowing file indexing, it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

 

[gregrocker]

Confirm you have established a totally Clean Boot as suggested with only lightweight Microsoft Security Essentials starting with Windows.

Post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[tephen04]

I don't know but the "svchost.exe" using 106.476k is a bit suspicious. I read somewhere that even though "svchost.exe" is a Windows process, some are using it to "mask" its true identity of a process, which can possibly doing something bad. You can check the Internet for the details of it and you decide if you want to end its process or not. But as a precaution, backup your OS drive using Macrium Reflect software. SevenForums guys provides a link here but I don't know how to do it.. In case problem occurs after you end that svchost.exe, you can undo it.

 

[rdl]

svhost.exe (Host Process for Windows Services) is a container for all the various background processes Windows needs to have running. It's normal to have several (many) copies of this running at once.

A lot of these processes are started by default but aren't actually necessary. Figuring out which ones you actually need can be tricky and it's also possible for non-Microsoft stuff to hide in there.

You can download and run Process Explorer and use it to see what is actually running inside each instance of svhost.exe

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

 

[gregrocker]

Using Process Explorer is one of the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 which have already been given. Work through all of these steps to go over your install most thoroughly. There are other steps awaiting reply.

 

[rdl]

Sorry, Process Explorer is not one of the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

Process Monitor could be used in this case, but to determine what is actually running inside each instance of svhost.exe, Process Explorer would seem to be a better choice.

 

[tephen04]

yes, Process Explorer may be useful. But, I think a guide must be given, since tweaking with it may cause bigger problems. I remembered using it before, and I ended up deleting it. Don't want to take risks.