Adjusting delay for accessing external drives (Win 10)

I have 2 Alienware laptops: a Win 7 based M17x R2 and a Win 10 based AW17 R4. The latter is only 3 weeks old and is my first experience with Windows 10.

When running Windows Explorer with the Win 7 machine, the time taken to access external HDD's is about 5 seconds. I'm assuming that the drives are in idle state and need this time to run up. However, on the new Win 10 machine the delay is exactly 17 seconds which is ridiculous!

The external drives are the same and are all connected via an USB 3.0 hub. I may be wrong but I'm guessing there's a motive for the extremely long wait for the drives to run up once selected in Windows Explorer so I'm wondering if there's a setting I can adjust somewhere so that they can be accessed in 5 seconds as with the Win 7 based machine?

 

When you say the drives are the same, do you mean that you have used the same external drive with both laptop and the access time is different or that you have two external of the same model and that the one you use on the Windows 10 laptop is slower?

If it's the former, it could be that the drives are in different idle states. For example, one could have the heads parked, but the platter still spinning and the other could have the heads and platters stopped. It could be a difference in USB drivers, one taking longer to send the signal to wake up the drive. You'll have to do a bit of digging to find out what the actual cause is.

If it's the latter, then it could be that one of your externals is just faster than the other even if they are the same model, there will always be variations between products from the same brand and model, especially if it's a branded external drive from WD, etc. where the drive inside the enclosure could be different.

 

It's the former. I have 2x 2.5" drives and 2x 3.5" drives connected to a USB 3.0 hub. I can switch between PC's by simply plugging the hub into the PC I need to use. If you like, it's a crude but simple way to ensure that data remains the same on both machines because the M17x travels while the AW17 stays at home.

Only the 3.5" drives seem to be affected as the 2.5's appear to run within 3 seconds of selecting them in Explorer.

Talking about the 3.5's now, on the M17x (Win 7) I think the platters are spinning permanently whilst on the AW17 (Win 10) the heads park and the platters stop automatically after 8 seconds of being idle.

I only have intermediate PC skills so have no idea how to do more research but I get the impression that the issue should be possible to resolve by adjusting a setting in Windows somewhere. After all, they do not behave like this when plugged into the M17x.

 

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/prevent-hard-drive-going-sleep-windows

 

alexhawker has the solution. I remember preventing the HDDs in my desktop for ever going to sleep.

Also, thanks for the info, that really pinpointed the problem. If the platters stop as well as the heads are parked, that would definitely explain the difference in delay. It likely has to do in how the devices declare themselves to or are perceived by Windows 7 and Windows 10 which leads to different "idle" behavior.

 

Brilliant! Thanks very much. I can let my hair begin growing again now.