RAID freeze computer for a few seconds?

[Pyro2008]

Does RAID 5 typically put hard drives in a sleep state when not in uses for a few minutes?

Unless I am consistently accessing the drives or the first time I attempt to access them it freezes my whole computer and I hear they clicking (like the arm is moving into position). This is not the typical bad hard drive clicking noise. In fact, I had all three drives replaced, TWICE, when I first purchased them through Amazon, thinking they were bad.

When I attempt to access the drives for the first time or after having not used for awhile the whole computer freezes for about 5 seconds. Once the drives kick in evertyhing is fine. I have not had any data problems with the drives either.

 

[Paperdoc]

Yes, this is possible. SOME RAID controllers use a special feature of certain HDD's to minimize HDD wear when not actually needed. They take control of the HDD's motor through a special setting on the HDD. When the array has not been used for some specified time, the controller shuts down the HDD's - parks the heads and then turns off the spin motor. When the array is accessed again it takes a few seconds to spin up. Consult the documentation in your RAID5 system to see whether yours is doing this, whether you can cancel it, or how you can adjust the time before shut-down.

 

[Pyro2008]

Ok, thanks.