How do I stop a USB external drive from switching off all the time?

[copacetic]

It takes several seconds to resume.

Is this normal?

 

[daWolf]

If you on Windows 7, maybe try to disable "USB selective suspend" which can be found under advanced power settings.

 

[copacetic]

Thanks, will try.

 

[Syphonx]

It takes several seconds to resume.

Is this normal?

It's normal for hardrives to spin down after a certain amount of idle time, it then takes a few seconds to spin up again.

 

[Enzo Matrix]

It's normal for hardrives to spin down after a certain amount of idle time, it then takes a few seconds to spin up again.

Well its a windows setting actually, under power options you can set it to never spin down if u like

 

[Peder]

It's normal for hardrives to spin down after a certain amount of idle time, it then takes a few seconds to spin up again.

And also seems to make the computer take some time to behave itself again.

 

[Electric]

This can be a total ballache for music production.
I store all my music libraries on a separate internal drive that only get's used for libraries.
When I start certain programs like Stylus RMX, it searches for the library on that drive.
Half of the time it can't find the library because the drive is still starting to spin the platter.
I'll have to restart the app just to get it to recognize.

Disabled that pretty quickly.

 

[Fudzy]

I wonder what sort of impact that will have on the longevity of the drive?

 

[Enzo Matrix]

I wonder what sort of impact that will have on the longevity of the drive?

Uses more electricity and impacts its lifespan, how much i dunno

 

[sajunky]

Uses more electricity and impacts its lifespan, how much i dunno

Actually lifespan is reduced due to the electric and mechanical stress during start/stop operations. Keep it spinning up - for longer lifespan.

 

[Rickster]

Ahhhh, this was the thread i was supposed to answer in earlier.


Exactly what wolf said.

 

[RaptorSA]

Is it one of those black Seagate external drives?
If that's the case you won't be able to adjust the Power settings in Windows 7/8.
The drive has a power management chip in that manages itself, irritating as all hell.... I did however solve my issue a while back by flashing the drive with firmware I found online that disables the power management feature.

 

[4ftersh0ck]

I had the same issue on my 2 3tb Western Digital drives. I used a utility called wdidle3 to disable that function and never had another issue.

 

[Keeper]

Take it out of the external case and put it directly inside your PC.
Better performance. Less plugs on the wall socket. Frees up a USB port. Less clutter. More desk space. Safer from spills. No spin-up time. Increased longevity of the drive.

 

[copacetic]

Take it out of the external case and put it directly inside your PC.
Better performance. Less plugs on the wall socket. Frees up a USB port. Less clutter. More desk space. Safer from spills. No spin-up time. Increased longevity of the drive.

This is actually a good idea, I don't transport the thing anywhere.

 

[Electric]

I was referring to an external drive put into a machine.
It still spins down if you don't disable the setting.

 

[MeroD]

I use NoSleepHD 1.0 (2.0 does not work in Win7)

 

[viper2110]

I had the same problem.
I wrote a small batch file that modifies a .txt file on the drive every couple of minutes.
This prevents the drive from sleeping.

 

[ponder]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdparm

Do it on the drive controller and not in the OS.

 

[PostmanPot]

I use NoSleepHD 1.0 (2.0 does not work in Win7)

+1