How to prevent ONE hard drive from spinning down?


  1. Posts : 116
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
       #1

    How to prevent ONE hard drive from spinning down?


    My computer contains one SSD + four noisy HDDs that I don't use very often (mostly just storage and backup).

    To keep my computer quiet and prevent wear & tear, I've set my Power Options to spin down the drives after 20 minutes :)

    The problem is that it also spins down my D drive - where I keep my Desktop, all my work, and stuff I use all the time. I hate having to wait for this to spin up!

    Is there any way to turn off power saving for JUST ONE DRIVE?

    I found a tutorial to do this for Windows 8 (https://superuser.com/questions/6136...ach-hard-drive) which adds a "MinimumIdleTimeoutInMS" to the registry. But these instructions didn't work for me in Windows 7. Only 3 of my 5 hard drives showed up in the list, and I couldn't even tell which was which!
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 6,021
    Win 7 HP SP1 64-bit Vista HB SP2 32-bit Linux Mint 18.3
       #2

    Hi Marty McFly,

    Perhaps to help us you could post a screenshot of your Disk Management?

    Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

    I hope this helps!
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 116
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Paul Black said:
    Perhaps to help us you could post a screenshot of your Disk Management?
    No problem:
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails How to prevent ONE hard drive from spinning down?-untitled.png  
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 6,021
    Win 7 HP SP1 64-bit Vista HB SP2 32-bit Linux Mint 18.3
       #4

    Hi Marty McFly,

    Obviously if a HDD contains two partitions then both partitions would be put to sleep.
    What HDD do you want to put to sleep?

    I hope this helps!
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 6,021
    Win 7 HP SP1 64-bit Vista HB SP2 32-bit Linux Mint 18.3
       #5

    Hi Marty McFly,

    Does this help: Windows 7 - How can I force an internal hard drive to power on or off.

    I hope this helps!
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 116
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Thank you for your help, but that did not give me a solution, sorry.



    Paul Black said:
    Obviously if a HDD contains two partitions then both partitions would be put to sleep.
    What HDD do you want to put to sleep?
    I already have set all my drives to go to sleep after 20 minutes. Except I don't want my SSD to ever sleep. There are two partitions on it C: (my system drive) and D: (my work drive).


    C: Never seems to sleep, but D: does sleep if I don't access my work for 20 minutes.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 7,351
    Windows 7 HP 64
       #7

    As you mentioned, C: and D: are partitions of a SSD. SSD's don't have moving parts so C: and / or D: don't "spin up".
    Don't understand your problem.
      My Computers


  8. Posts : 116
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Megahertz07 said:
    As you mentioned, C: and D: are partitions of a SSD. SSD's don't have moving parts so C: and / or D: don't "spin up".
    Don't understand your problem.
    Well sometimes if I try to access my D drive (on the SSD) - and I haven't accessed it for a while - it will hang for about 7 seconds before responding.

    That only started happening recently since I set my drives to be put to sleep after 20 minutes of inactivity.

    For reference, my SSD is the OCZ ARC-100 480GB SSD
      My Computer


 

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:14.
Find Us