Windows 7 x64 access external hdd on unrelated task

[betacase]

Hi everyone!

I've notice that lately my computer has been lagging a little, especially when I start a new task. My computer seems to stall for a few seconds, then I hear my 1TB WD external spin up and the tasked is then completed quickly. The strange part is that the task (opening a folder or the recycle bin) does not involve the external. Its almost as if every time I try to do something new like open a browser it checks first with the 1 TB external. For the life of me I can't figure out why.

I did some google searches and it seems I might not be the only one:

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110624215008AAPNBzf

My Specs:

Intel i7 920 (OC 3.8)
ASUS P6T
EVGA GTX 260
OCZ 6gb RAM

If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate it!

 

[Hawkeye22]

I'm not sure why it would try to access the disk unless it's trying to index files from it. You can go into the power settings and tell it not to spin the drives down. I think the default is to spin down the drives after 5 minutes of idle time. This is what is causing your delay because the drive has to get back up to speed before it can be accessed.

 

[betacase]

Thanks for the reply Hawkeye! I agree that the delay is caused by the harddrive being spun down, the question I'm trying to answer is why is the computer trying to access the drive in the first place. This happens on tasks that are completely unrelated to the external itself. Any insight would be most appreciated!

 

[math1337]

Windows just does that. Unplug the drive if it's an issue.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Like I said, it's most likely indexing files or your A/V scanner may be scanning files. I just set windows to not spin down the drives as it's very annoying. The drives will spin down when you put the computer to sleep anyhow, assuming you use sleep mode when not in use.