2 TB External Hard Drive Help

[jamie6747]

Hiy


I want to know why it takes a few seconds for my 2TB HHD to come online when i click on the HHD logo in my computer..


If you dont understand what i mean..
When i go to my computer and i will see the hardhrive logo's. I click on Expansion Drive 'J' and the harddrive will make a clicking noise for 2 seconds and then it will open in windows....IE the folders will apear.


How do i stop this? Can i have it running at 100% all the time? So i dont have to wait for it? Everytime because everytime to takes to seconds to load, windows deletes the thumbnails...

 

[PhilFrisbie]

Is this external drive? If so, then you have no control over the power settings.

 

[Lopok]

that's because your external hard drive spins down when sitting idle for prolonged periods of time to save energy, the solution is to go to Control Panel/Hardware and Sound/Power Options/Change plan settings/Change advance power settings and after that click on plus sign besides Hard disk/Turn off hard disk after and set the value to 0

 

[fzabkar]

If this is a Seagate Expansion external HDD, then I believe that you may be able to configure the inactivity timeout using Seagate Manager software.

 

[r3xx3r]

lopok is absolutely correct

 

[fzabkar]

AIUI, setting or disabling the inactivity timeout in Control Panel only determines how the OS deals with the ATA Standby or Standby Immediate commands. In addition to this, the drive has its own internal APM (Advanced Power Management) which causes it to spin down after a preprogrammed period of inactivity. You may be able to use utilities such as hdparm or HDDScan to set the APM value. Otherwise, some USB-SATA/PATA bridge ICs will send their own preconfigured APM values to the drive immediately after power on. I expect that Seagate Manager software controls this behaviour, but I'm not sure.

 

[bruceinmich]

Check the heat of this drive. You really want it to go to sleep when not in use. Otherwise, it gets very, very hot. And I mean VERY hot. The wait of 3 or 4 seconds to access it is well worth the wait if it means keeping it cooled. Otherwise, after a short period, you could very well lose ALL your data. Heat is a major reason for HDD failures.