1st Gen Envy 14 HDD sleeping after 10 minutes

I have a first generation HP Envy 14. I recently upgraded to a SSD from HDD so I decided to use my current HDD as an eSATAp external HDD. I originally wanted to put games and other large files on my extHDD because my SSD space is limited but I ran into a major problem with the HDD sleeping after 10 minutes of inactivity. Additionally, the hard drive refuses to wake up unless I pull out the power and plug it back in. However, the hard drive does not sleep if it's under load. For example, when I ran an anti-virus scan for 1+ hours, my HDD was still under activity and it did not sleep.

So I did a bit of Googling and I found out I have to go into power options and set to never turn off hard disks. I already did this when I first installed my SSD, but my hard drive continues to sleep after exactly 10 minutes of inactivity.

Interestingly enough, since I didn't format or change my HDD yet, I can boot into my previous OS from the HDD. From this environment, the HDD does NOT sleep even during idle.

The HDD is a Seagate 500GB with the following parameters:
Model: ST9500420AS, Firmware: 0006HPM1

Does anyone know how I can prevent my HDD from sleeping? Any solutions or responses will be highly appreciated.

 

Found your question interesting so did a bit of research, too. Am guessing you took the HDD out of the Envy and put it into an external enclosure after installing the SSD? What type/brand did you use? Many HDs and enclosures are coded or programmed to shut off after just about 10 minutes of not being written-to, both to save power and prevent heat buildup especially in external enclosures without fans. One they become "external" drives they are pretty much beyond Windows settings so changing power plans and such is not likely to do much. Seagate drives and enclosures especially have the feature and it turns off at just about the 10 minute mark you mentioned.

There are some "fixes" that can be downloaded that write to the external drive every few minutes to keep it from entering sleep mode. Some have suggested formatting the drive and see if that removes any power-saving features that Seagate might have installed (you mentioned you had not formatted it). There is also software on the Seagate site (Seagate Manager?) that users have said lets them set power savings, sleep time for their external drives. Not sure if it is dependent on their brand of drive and/or enclosure to make the changes.

So, without knowing exactly which external enclosure you are using that was about as far as I could get. You asked for any solutions or responses so hope any of this helps. Curious to know what you find out.