Secondary HDD spin up

[blackmancer]

Hi, an odd thing I notice with a secondary HDD I have plugged in. It seems it is required to spin up so I can open Opera and while playing BFBC2 I notice when I join a server I get a slight pause in the game while my secondary HDD spins up. Got no idea why access to a data drive is required to do these things. Its kinda annoying really, but hey its probably some Microsoft thing so I shouldn't be surprised. Suggestions? I don't think anyone will have an idea though.

 

[unksol]

ooo! ooo! pick me! I have an idea!(couldn't help myself, sorry if I am wrong)

I believe windows sets up the page file on the second drive if its available at install. little fuzzy though. but that would do it.

 

[blackmancer]

I checked page file settings and they were set to automatically manage on all drives, but while it stated system managed on C: is said none on D:

D:

 

[photonboy]

That seems odd.
You could experiment a little:

1) unhook all non-Windows drives except one
2) change the Power Settings to the drives shut down as quickly as possible (just for testing, say 3 minutes)
3) open the case to easily monitor noise if needed
4) try the drive hooked to different SATA connections (not all needed, just one for each SATA controller as indicated in the manual)
5) try IDE and AHCI
6) try different programs

Unless your game was actually installed to that drive, I don't understand why it would spin up unless some diagnostic routine is also being triggered for the game (don't know why) or Opera has a DOWNLOAD folder on one of those drives.

 

[blackmancer]

thanks for your reply photonboy, just to go over your suggestions

1) this is the current situation, I have 2 80G SSDs in Raid0 and just this single 2TB drive connected
2) was this power setting within Windows power settings? currently its set to 20mins for HDs or is this a drive specific setting within its own properties somewhere (which I can't find)
3) I have no case, mobo on cardboard box after I got jack of my W/C ages ago and cbf putting it all back in the case
4) I could try that, hook it up to the Marvell controller, currently it is on the Intel ICHx with the 2 OS Raid drives
5) not sure if I can swap that and keep a bootable system with OS on Intel Raid0
6) I'll keep an eye out, but those 2 were ones I notice it in, I think it might happen in other games but not definite.