How to prevent hard drive from spinning down Windows 7?

Question

I had a Western Digital External 1TB drive, which I was accessing via USB. I decided one day, that I would prefer to mount the HDD in my case, and access it via SATA interface. So I took it apart, and the actual mounting was a breeze.

The only thing is, I think the device has some default power saving features, which means the device tends to stop spinning when idle for (x) amount of time.

This creates delays when I am accessing the HDD. Is there anyway I can turn off these power saving features for this HDD?

Answer 1

If it's (for example) a green Western Digital drive, it's going to spin down regardless, because the drive decides to turn off after a certain time.

Answer 2

You should be able to turn this off unless the drive has some crazy firmware that completely ignores commands. In the Power Options dialogue in Win 7, take your given plan and 'Change plan settings', then 'Change advanced power settings'. There's an option for 'Hard disk' and 'Turn off hard disk after...'. Set it to 0 for 'Never'.

Answer 3

If you're familiar with Linux, check out the hdparm command: http://linux.die.net/man/8/hdparm (particularly the -S switch).

I've successfully turned off the spin down setting on a bunch of drives with it before. It sets the setting on the drive itself so it will persist no matter what computer you're using it with or how you format it :)

Answer 4

This is not always caused by power management in Windows; sometimes it is caused by the hard drive firmware. Spinning down at a period of 5 minutes or 10 is annoying if you work in Photoshop, Word or other programs and must save your work periodically. It is irritating to wait for the HDD to spinning up. It may also damage the HDD.

Solution is very simple:

• Create a batch file (with filename spinning.bat) in Notepad and put this script in it:

  echo a > d:\stop_spinning_down.txt
  

  (d: represents your HDD). The batch file can be put on the problematic HDD or another partition.

• Run task scheduler from Windows and create a new task to run that batch file (.bat) and restart that task at 5 minutes or 10 minutes. This operation writes a text file at 5 or 10 minutes and then rewrites that file over and over. The problem is that when every task is executed the cmd window opens, again annoying :))

We must run the batch file in hidden mode:

• Create a .vbs file with Notepad and put this script in it:

  Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") 
  
  WshShell.Run chr(34) & "d:\spinning.bat" & Chr(34), 0
  
  Set WshShell = Nothing
  

• Now save this file (e.g.: spinning_hide.vbs; note that spinning.bat is your batch file) at the location of the batch file and then run only the .vbs file with Windows task scheduler. This method writes a text file of 1k at a 5 or 10 minute interval and prevents the HDD from entering idle mode.