Question external usb HDD makes whole system lag frequently

[sanman98]

i got a WD 16tb usb drive attached directly to laptop (lenovo 7i 82bh)
Win11 Pro, 12gb ram, 11th gen i5
got external 4k monitor and peripherals setup. not currently using usb-c hub, but the monitor is through usb-c.

anyways i don't often use files actively on the external drive, but even when loading some software or file browser, often many things seem to lag for a whole 5 seconds or so, even not trying to access that drive
open a File Save window? lag
File Open? even to my downloads folder on local SSD, lags

once the hard drive makes some whirring noises each time, the system unfreezes, but this happens frequently enough, i was wondering maybe i should attach it to my miniPC as network storage again.








unrelated
laptop is still sometimes crashing and reboot on few occasion when i come back finding it on login screen, maybe overload too many programs
but that might be unrelated and discussed in previous thread
i'm still trying to tidy up my files and backups, maybe use Beyond Compare, SyncBackSE, Teracopy or symlinks
but i might get something figured out

i could consider a desktop PC with hotswap anyways, or switch to Mac
i don't know if some of the Orico hard drive docks wouldn't do this sleep/wake function same as WD
like i said, just putting it (WD usb drive) on network storage probably is a decent solution for now
maybe set up Nextcloud or something too

 

[zinkles]

Download CrystalDiskInfo, open it and attach a screenshot of the SMART status & drive health here (using imgur.com).

 

[sanman98]

 

[NedSmelly]

External USB drive might be spinning down on power save mode during idle, and spinning up again whenever you try to access it.

Check your power plan settings, and adjust accordingly.

 

[sanman98]

Yeah gonna try advanced settings > hard drive and sleep timers


Unless there's a registry fix
I did that for the sound card - a registry fix as this is a laptop
The sound card kept idling standby the audio so any clip I'd playback it'd skip half a second
That becomes a huge problem for audio editing or such

Thanks
I'll see if the power options fixed it
I had BIOS set to performance mode or something some time ago, but had set it back to balanced or power save
I think everything was back to default at this point
I've changed the OS settings. Maybe check BIOS eventually.