Question How to optimize Windows 10/11 to work with an HDD ?

[Shaggart]

Hi everyone!
I have a 18TB HDD installed in my PC.
Maybe someone has a list of tweaks or best practices for configuring Windows to work with this disk.
GPO, options, anything.

Thanks!

 

[SkyNetRising]

Maybe someone has a list of tweaks or best practices for configure windows to work with this disk.

Get an SSD for OS. For any modern pc - SSD is a must.
There's no way for getting appropriate/enjoyable experience with windows OS on HDD.

 

[USAFRet]

Hi everyone!
I have a 18 TB HDD installed in my PC.
Maybe someone has a list of tweaks or best practices for configure windows to work with this disk.
GPO, options, anything.

Thanks!

There is no special tweaks. It is simply a result of the spinning drive.

Is this 18TB supposed to be the OS drive?

Using a 500GB SSD instead will make a world of difference.

 

[NorbertPlays]

There's no way for getting appropriate/enjoyable experience with windows OS on HDD.

This. A typical Windows 10 install will result in around a quarter of a million files, and efficiently accessing them is just beyond the capabilities of a mechanical drive. In the "olden days" when hard disks had relatively low density, an OS only consisted of a few files, the order that they were likely to be needed was reasonably predictable, and there wasn't much background file access once you were up and running you could optimise the physical locations of files on a disk to speed things up a bit, but those days are long gone.

 

[Shaggart]

There is no special tweaks. It is simply a result of the spinning drive.

Is this 18TB supposed to be the OS drive?

Using a 500GB SSD instead will make a world of difference.

No, the entire drive will be used for archiving.
For OS I already have a Samsung 990 NVMe SSD.

When I access the HDD it responds very slowly...
So I thought that there are some best practices for setting up HDDs in Windows ?

 

[NorbertPlays]

responds very slowly...

Define "very slowly".

 

[SkyNetRising]

No, the entire drive will be used for archiving.
When I access the HDD it responds very slowly...

What model HDD? Is it SMR drive?
SMR drives have inconsistent write performance. This is normal operation.

 

[Shaggart]

What model HDD? Is it SMR drive?
SMR drives have inconsistent write performance. This is normal operation.

Seagate X18.
Yes - it is SMR.

Some of first operations after power up computer are like freezes.
For example, i need to open txt in notepad++ on this drive, but it is very slow.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Seagate X18.
Yes - it is SMR.

Exos X18 is CMR drive.

 

[Shaggart]

Exos X18 is CMR drive.

Yes, i was wrong.
Some recommendations about perfomance?

 

[SkyNetRising]

No.
It should work at top performance without need for any additional configuration.

Check health of the drive with HDtune - health section.
Show screenshot (upload to imgur.com and post link to it)

Also show screenshot from HDtune benchmark section.
Choose free 2.55 HDtune version.
https://www.hdtune.com/download.html

 

[NorbertPlays]

Yes, i was wrong.
Some recommendations about perfomance?

I still stand by my "it's mechanical, it's going to be slow" (4K reads are in the 10MB/s range), but this may improve things a bit.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I still stand by my "it's mechanical, it's going to be slow" (4K reads are in the 10MB/s range)

For storing archives this is not important.

 

[NorbertPlays]

For storing archives this is not important

I'm confused. Speed isn't important, but you're also complaining it's slow?

 

[SkyNetRising]

but you're also complaining it's slow?

No. Not me. 😊

 

[NorbertPlays]

No. Not me. 😊

My bad. 😳

 

[MWink64]

but this may improve things a bit.

If the drive is working properly but there are occasional pauses, I think this is quite possibly the cause. However, I have a couple issues with the advice in that link. I wouldn't totally disable EPC, just Idle B. Idle A probably won't cause a noticeable slowdown, and Idle C and Standby Z are disabled by default.

I think the last part is completely incorrect. They're conflating APM (Advanced Power Management) with AAM (Automatic Acoustic Management). It's also probably a moot issue, as I don't think the Exos X18 supports either APM or AAM.

My recommendation would be to use the utility to disable EPC Idle B and PowerBalance.