How can I figure out what's causing my hard drive to turn on at random points in the day?

[bobsburgers]

I use Windows 10 with relatively few programs on this SSD, and a hard drive that just holds media files. I'll be browsing on Chrome throughout the day and the hard drive just randomly turns itself on. I schedule my automatic virus scans to be monthly so I doubt it's that.

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Most likely is the Search Indexer service from windows, doing constant checks looking for new data on your HDD.

If you go to sysinternals website you'll find a couple software designed to monitor your HDD activity, with it you should be able to determine what exactly is accessing your HDD.

 

[geofelt]

Windows 10 does updates whenever it wants. I suspect there is some checking going on from time to time.

 

[helpstar]

Even Chrome or addons of it could search for anything