HDD access time is sometimes long


  1. Lebon14
    Posts : 1,326
    Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
       New #1

    HDD access time is sometimes long


    Hi guys... I haven't tell any of my "problems" with Windows 7 yet...

    I don't know, but whenever I want to access my E:\ drive (my internal 500GB), it does take a few miliseconds, it takes several seconds. It does not happen all the time though. I checked my internal drives' SMARTs and they are all fine fitness and performance wise.

    I don't know if it's because the drive is starting to worn out or because the filesystem is fragmented...

    I don't know... it's really bugging me because the responsiveness of some software I run like foobar2000 (loading time of first song) or Adobe Audition 1.5 (preview files freeze the software for a few seconds) takes a hit.

    Can anyone help me shed some light on this?
    Thanks
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  3. Brink
    Posts : 72,116
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       New #2

    Hello Sébastien,

    You might check you Power Options settings to see if you have the "Hard disk" set to turn off after a certain number of minutes. If you do, then set it to "Never" instead. If turned off, the HDD will take a second to spin back up whenever you try to access it.

    HDD access time is sometimes long-power_options.jpg

    Hope this helps,
    Shawn
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  4. Lebon14
    Posts : 1,326
    Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    Heh... thx Shawn. I didn't know that Win7 loved to turn off my HDDs... so, that's probably why he likes to turn off my 320GB one making it disappear from Computer.
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  6. Brink
    Posts : 72,116
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       New #4

    You're welcome. There's also an option to hide or show empty HDD's as well in Folder Options.
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  7. jimbo45
    Posts : 5,941
    Linux CENTOS 7 / various Windows OS'es and servers
       New #5

    Hi there
    This problem also sometimes appears if you have a mix of IDE / SATA drives - the IDE disk is usually the one with the "Lag".

    I found a solution was to change the BIOS to have all disks treated as SATA if you have that option in the BIOS or to turn on / off ACPI . - Some Bioses have "IDE emulation" etc etc.

    If you change these options however you'll need to do a "Repair" re-install otherwise you'll get a BSOD at boot. So BACKUP your system first so if none of these settings work even after a "repair re-install" you can just set the Bios back to the original settings and restore your system.


    Note when messing around with obscure BIOS settings -- NOTE DOWN THE ORIGINAL and only change one thing at a time - otherwise you can really hose up your system.

    Cheers
    jimbo
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  8. Lebon14
    Posts : 1,326
    Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       New #6

    @jimbo : I only have two internal SATA, so I don't think that's the problem here.
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