Question HDD Slows the entire system down when enabled

[SomeGuyonTHW]

Hi.
I noticed recently that some apps and games start up much slower (because they wait for HDD to spin up?).
This happens despite the fact that those apps and games are NOT installed on HDD, do not have their settings or temporary files stored on HDD.
Windows pagefile is also not on HDD, I use the HDD (Western Digital 3TB Purple) entirely for storing things I don't frequently use and nothing more.
and yet, I noticed a drastic improvement in apps responsiveness when the HDD is disabled, why is that?
Can't windows just leave the HDD alone when I'm not working with it?
for example, I launch God of War which is installed on my C: drive (SSD), and it takes 15 seconds before the window pops up, with HDD disabled, it is almost instant. (not the loading screens, the app launch itself takes longer with HDD enabled)

I noticed this in other places too, like Epic games, I install the game on SSD but for some odd reason, when HDD is disabled my download/install speeds are much higher, it doesn't get stuck on "initializing", overall better when HDD is disabled, which I should repeat, I'm not trying to install anything on it, it is just there...

 

[USAFRet]

If it is connected, Windows will be using it.
If it is a bit faulty, then Windows WILL have issues.

Set it to sleep after XX minutes.

If it is indeed faulty, replace.