Why are my hard discs spinning all the time?

[zenpmd]

I have an SSD for windows and a big hard disk that just contains photos. Lately that hard disk has started spinning (and therefore making noise) all the time. How can I get this to stop? Its presumably not good for the life of the drive either.

Thanks

[kalniel]

Continuous spinning probably isn't too bad for the drive, but have a look in the windows resource monitor (disk tab) to see what programs are causing load on that drive.

[g8ina]

Either using the page file too much, or indexing the drive.

[Bonebreaker777]

Either using the page file too much, or indexing the drive.

Same opinion. I would turn off indexing if I were you. The page file is more likely to be on the SSD, unless the OP dropped one on each drive.

[watercooled]

Do you mean they're being accessed (head seeking sounds), or just idle spinning/not going into standby?

If it's the latter, it could be that a power option has been changed, or something is accessing the drive and resetting the sleep timer.

[zenpmd]

Thanks everyone. I have just turned off indexing for all drives, and told them all to go to sleep in 15 minutes of non use.

Looking at windows resource monitor they are not accessing data so this information is not seek noise (doesnt sound like it either) just the sound of something moving (because of of course when ssd are on they are silent) whereas just getting power seems to make mechanical drives make a sound?

[watercooled]

Yeah HDDs will hum while sitting idle if they're not on standby, but they're designed to run like that and it's nothing to worry about. In fact constantly start/stopping drives can be worse than just leaving them idle.

However, if the hum/vibration is annoying you can adjust standby settings to allow it to spin down when it's not used for a while.

[kalniel]

Looking at windows resource monitor they are not accessing data so this information is not seek noise (doesnt sound like it either) just the sound of something moving (because of of course when ssd are on they are silent) whereas just getting power seems to make mechanical drives make a sound?

They spin, yes. This is normal, as constantly stopping/starting would be more mechanically wearing and use more power. As you can tell, you can tell them to spin down after a period of inactivity, which makes sense if you're not accessing them frequently.

[zenpmd]

Thanks. How do I do that? Oddly thats how they worked when I first installed them.

So right now I have 2 x 3TB drives. One is an exact mirror of the other. And they contain backed up photos, nothing else, so no need to be accessed regularly at all.

[watercooled]

Search for Power Options in the Start menu. Then under your active power plan (usually balanced - high performance generally doesn't do much besides running louder and wasting more power at idle) click 'change plan settings', followed by 'change advanced power settings'.

In the new window, expand Hard Disk and you should be able to change the time under there.

[kalniel]

Thanks. How do I do that? Oddly thats how they worked when I first installed them.

So right now I have 2 x 3TB drives. One is an exact mirror of the other. And they contain backed up photos, nothing else, so no need to be accessed regularly at all.

Windows power saving options - turn off hard drives after x minutes.

edit: ninja'd by watercooled AGAIN!

[watercooled]

Great minds!