Hard drive in Optical Bay- Always spinning (even when not in use)

Hey guys,

I have a Lenovo Y580. I bought an mSATA (which is my OS drive), I put a regular 2.5" SSD in my HDD bay, and I got a new HDD and put that in my optical bay. (Also took my ODD out and put it into an external USB 3.0 enclosure but that is irrelevant). My HDD is used to store music, pictures, and Steam games (although the actual Steam program is on a different drive). I have no programs on the drive, and nothing that would autostart it. I also have "Smart power saving hard disk" (disk goes into a power saving state when not the system is not reading from or writing to it) enabled in my Lenovo Energy Management program, although I don't think it's working then.

This HDD is always spinning, even if I'm just on the desktop. The reason I want it to stop is because its a 7200 RPM drive. It's audible (though not bothersome), it uses more energy, I can feel my laptop vibrating pretty rapidly.

I'm wondering if there is something I can do to make it stop spinning when it's not in use? I don't need it to power off completely, but shouldn't it not be spinning all the time?

Thanks!

 

Hard drives will spin when something is accessing the data (tasking/querying the drive). It may not seem like it, but the hard drive doesn't need to be queried every second to be kept spinning. Hard drives will have a preset time from the last query before they spin down. For example, if your hard drive is set to spin down if not queried in the last 120 second, then all's it takes is for any program to task the drive within that two minutes to keep the drive spinning. It can be anything so I suggest checking which programs you have loaded to see if any of them are the culprit. Windows Search Indexer is notorious for keeping hard drives spinning as it indexes the files on it. The Lenovo smart power program you describe could be interfering with the drive firmware's auto spin down parameters, but not sure. Not familiar with them there's Lenovo programs.

 

Ah-hah! I think you solved the mystery. I moved the indexing file to my HDD to save up some space on my OS drive (only 64GB). Totally forgot I did that. Would that be the culprit then?

 

Most probably. Disable the search indexer in two ways:

1st: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services - > Right-Click Windows Search -> Startup type: Disabled -> OK
This disabled the actual indexer service so it won't try and run in the background again.

2nd: Go to Computer -> Right click on the Drive -> Properties -> Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties -> Click OK

 

Indexing just makes searching my computer faster right? So the first step disables indexing altogether, while the second one only disables indexing for my HDD? Do I have to do both methods to stop my HDD from spinning when I'm not using it? Lastly, is there any reason to keep indexing enabled?

Thanks so much!

 

If you disable indexing, you disable the ability to search (completely).

Bad idea.

Simply move the index to the SSD (where it belongs: for the speed increase).

 

The whole reason I moved it in the first place was because it took up so much space. That and disabled hibernation saved me a lot of space. I don't want my SSD space getting too low, I'm at 20GB free now. But I guess it can't be helped. Does the index file read from the disk, or does it also write to it? Another reason I didn't want it on my SSD, but I don't think it would write to it.

So I moved it back to my OS drive via Indexing Options in the Control Panel, but my HDD is still spinning and I don't have a single reason as to why right now!

 

No it doesn't. Who told you that?

 

To be clear, when I said it disables the search (completely) - I mean it doesn't search completely (not that it turns it off).

Try it. Win7 or Win8.

 

Tried it. Search still worked as expected. It does say the searches may be slow because the indexer is not running, but that was the point in turning off the Windows Search Indexer service.

 

You will however loose indexing of file content if I recall correctly and that in my opinion is also a rather useful feature of search. Indexing is one of those things I will never turn off, along with prefetch/superfetch. As a matter of fact, I prefer not messing with Windows services if it can be avoided.

 

I have no need to index my files because I know which folder they are all in. If I need to search a specific folder for a specific file, indexer really doesn't speed it up that much.

Prefetch and superfetch I keep active no matter how many SSD tweak guide tell me otherwise. Only other Windows services I disable are disk defrag, system restore, and hibernation.

 

I don't use search enough to justify using it, but I'll keep it on for now. So I moved it back to my C:\ drive, and my HDD is still spinning.

Like I said, I really only have pictures, music, and documents on that drive. I do have steam games (steam library on a separate drive), I haven't even opened Steam in a while, so that can't be it. I'm really not sure!

Side question. Around the same time I moved my index back to my OS drive, and now I'm noticing noticeably slower boot times. I'll explain a little more.

At the "Starting Windows" screen, about halfway my screen freezes for a split second, the windows animation finishes and I hang at a black screen for a good 10-15 seconds. Then it goes to my account screen. Normally that black screen just flashes for a split second, then goes to my account screen. Not sure if it has to do with indexing, but it was around the same time.

Any ideas? Thanks so much, I'm terribly confused about what's going on.

 

If all's you've changed is the Index settings, then it's reasonable to conclude that could be what's causing it to hang. Another thing you can do is post a photo of the services tab in your task manager so we can see which apps are running and deduce which one(s) could be continually accessing your hard drive. Conversely, your hard drive could be faulty if it does not want to spin down (rare but possible).

 

Well, if the drive hasn't been installed for long, it could just be Windows indexing stuff, it can take a while if there is a lot of data. However, if the drive has been in your notebook for some time, Indexing shouldn't be constantly accessing it.

 

So is it hanging now because Windows is still indexing, or will it always take this long to boot with the index file on this drive? If so I might move it to my 2nd SSD, if moving it to another drive is the only way to stop my boot screen from hanging.

Sure, here you go (please click on link and enlarge). Thank you!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7458/9412038815_e8aac90bde_o.jpg

HDD seems alright to me (from HDTune):

I've had my drive for a few months, and used 281GB.

 

To start with, shut off disk defrag. You would need to unschedule it in the disk defrag toolbox, then disable the service in the services control panel.

Acronis sync could also be causing the hard drive to remain active. Is the Acronis software you're using necessary?

Also, bit locker is active. Not sure if that's by default in Windows 7, but its with checking out.

Post a photo of your processes tab next and that well give a better picture of what is actually running in the foreground.

 

Got it. It was Acronis Nonstop Backup Service. Apparently how the feature works is that it would create a full initial backup of my drives, and save any changes every 5 minutes. I never turned that feature on or setup that backup however, so not sure why it was causing my drive to spin up, but now that it's disabled my hard drive's finally not spinning.

Another fun fact, launching Steam will spin up my hard drive. Some of my Steam games are on this drive, but not the actual program itself.

So I'm moving my index file back to my HDD and I'll see what happens now.

Which leads me to my final question. While I was trying to figure out what was causing it to spin up, I read up on what's better for the hard drive. And now I'm not sure if the drive will last longer if it's constantly spinning, or it spins up when I need it and spins down when I don't. Because I read that each are harmful in their own ways for the drive, but I don't know what's better for a laptop.

Thanks again.

 

De nada.

Hard drives are meant to last a while, but most aren't mean to be ran 24/7 for 10 years. Only NAS/Network specific drives are like that. While keeping your drive running without a break will eventually be bad for it, constantly spinning up and spinning down are worse. The hardest point for any motor/engine (electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, etc.) is the startup and shutdown. Limiting those time points will extend the life of any motor.

 

Well it seems that Lenovo Smart Power Saving Hard Disk feature isn't working. When I boot up, my HDD is spinning and still is spinning after 15 minutes or so. The only way that I can make it spin down is when I set the option to turn the hard disk off in power options to a minute or so. What's a good number for that option for when my laptop is plugged in? Like 5 minutes? Or should I keep it at it's default 20?

Also, moved my index file to my 2nd SSD. I noticed that the only indexed locations were internet explorer history, offline files, and start menu (the the drives weren't there), so I added my 3 drives.



No hanging while booting up anymore!

 

5 minutes is a good point to start. If it seems like it's constantly spinning up and down, then increase the time and see what happens

 

in the Control Panel power options, I've always set my hard drives to never spin down when plugged in

I don't have a hard drive caddy yet, so I don't know if it's normal for the hdd not to spin down.

Anyone else have this issue? Do the control panel options allow you to spin down the hdd?

 

Yes. That's what the power option is there for. Ideally you want your drive to spin down during extended periods of inactivity, but don't constantly want it spinning up and spinning down.

 

I'm always opening files throughout the day, so there's no chance for it to spin down.

I'm curious to see the outcome of the OP's problem, and whether it can be solved by power settings.

 

The OP solved the original problem by deactivating the Acronis backup service that was running.

And if you are constantly opening files throughout the day, do you save them often, or just open them and leave them open (like a pdf)? If it's a read-only type of file, then your drive should still spin down since the file is stored in the RAM or page file once it's opened.

 

I just got my hard drive caddy, and my new WD Scorpio Blue 1TB drive spins down TOO much. Like 1 minutes after file read/write, even though windows power settings are set to always on.

I keep hearing it spin up. I would like it to spin all the time when plugged in.

I guess WD thinks it's ok for hdd's to keep spinning down and up.
I wonder if it's in the firmware of the hdd.

 

It is part of the firmware. My Scorpio Blacks are set to like 2 minutes spindown timeouts.

 

ah. Scorpio blacks come with 5 year warranty. I guess WD's can withstand a billion load cycles.