Hard drive stops/starts every minute

[Just D.]

All,

The second hard drive working on the second IDE controller stops and starts
approximately every minute. It's very annoying especially keeping in mind
that the second device on the same controller is used by RW-DVD and these
ON/OFF affect the CD/DVD writing. How can I make this hard drive always
working if BIOS switched to ALWAYS ON, Savers on laptop are also don't allow
to disable the hard drive or computer. What's going on there? Can this hard
drive disable itself regardless the Windows XP Professional settings? Or
it's a WindowsXP bug?

The latest service packs are installed.

Dmitri.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

All,

The second hard drive working on the second IDE controller stops and
starts approximately every minute. It's very annoying especially
keeping in mind that the second device on the same controller is used
by RW-DVD and these ON/OFF affect the CD/DVD writing. How can I make
this hard drive always working if BIOS switched to ALWAYS ON, Savers
on laptop are also don't allow to disable the hard drive or computer.
What's going on there? Can this hard drive disable itself regardless
the Windows XP Professional settings? Or it's a WindowsXP bug?

The latest service packs are installed.

Dmitri.

Use the Task Manager to determine what application is using that hard drive
when it is active. It should be readily apparent in the Processes tab/CPU
column.

--
Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

Please reply to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://www.mvps.org

 

[Just D.]

Hi Ronnie

Use the Task Manager to determine what application is using that hard drive
when it is active. It should be readily apparent in the Processes tab/CPU
column.

You know I'd like to have this hard drive always ON, but nothing helps me to
disable this green mode and that's strange for me. It works fine on desktops
but doesn't work on this laptop.

Dmitri.

 

[Rock]

All,

The second hard drive working on the second IDE controller stops and starts
approximately every minute. It's very annoying especially keeping in mind
that the second device on the same controller is used by RW-DVD and these
ON/OFF affect the CD/DVD writing. How can I make this hard drive always
working if BIOS switched to ALWAYS ON, Savers on laptop are also don't allow
to disable the hard drive or computer. What's going on there? Can this hard
drive disable itself regardless the Windows XP Professional settings? Or
it's a WindowsXP bug?

The latest service packs are installed.

Dmitri.

It's not a good idea to have a hard drive on a secondary channel with an
optical drive. Put both hard drives on primary, optical drives on the
secondary.

 

[Just D.]

Hi Rock,

Thank you for the suggestion, but properly you have not read the original
message - it's LAPTOP!-)

Just D.

 

[John Vittoe]

All,

The second hard drive working on the second IDE controller stops and starts
approximately every minute. It's very annoying especially keeping in mind
that the second device on the same controller is used by RW-DVD and these
ON/OFF affect the CD/DVD writing. How can I make this hard drive always
working if BIOS switched to ALWAYS ON, Savers on laptop are also don't allow
to disable the hard drive or computer. What's going on there? Can this hard
drive disable itself regardless the Windows XP Professional settings? Or
it's a WindowsXP bug?

The latest service packs are installed.

Dmitri.

This may be worthless but I had a similar problem right after I
installed my HP 1012 Laser Jet Printer. Every few seconds the
hard drive light would blink and the mouse cursor would flash the
hourglass for a split second. It drove me nuts and I eventually
solved it by using Task Manager. I added a few columns to the
Task Manager, Processes window, so I could see what I/O was
working and it helped me discover that Hewlett Packard had
installed a program on my computer called statusclient.exe that
was accessing the hard drive. I stopped the process and my
problem was solved. Emailed HP and they said the program was not
necessary but would not tell me what it did.

 

[Just D.]

Hi John

This may be worthless but I had a similar problem right after I
installed my HP 1012 Laser Jet Printer. Every few seconds the

You know I know about same problem with HP drivers for various models.
Many-many years ago I started the SpeeDisk and it was working fine, but when
I bought and installed HP I noticed that it can't even start working. The
rapid evaluation found the HP drivers pooling FAT every few seconds. It was
cool, but this process was killed at all. Since that - it always was working
fine with all models because I knew the solution.

That's different. The drive falls down to sleep, but I want it always up and
running.

Dmitri.

 

[Rock]

Hi Rock,

Thank you for the suggestion, but properly you have not read the original
message - it's LAPTOP!-)

Just D.

lol..sorry about missing that.

 

[Just D.]

Hi Rock,

lol..sorry about missing that.

You know, I think I found a temporary solution and bought an external box
for this hard drive. Anyway it's more flexible, I will use it with different
machines and it will be possible to disconnect one if required.

But anyway the problem is not solved yet. I'm also suspecting that the same
thing is going on with my first hard drive. It's very fast and silent but
nevertheless I hear a very low noise when it starts after stop. All green
functions are DISABLED everywhere. Thanks Microsoft for this software that
thinks that is smarter than the user using it.

P.S. I guess that these start/stops will decrease the life time of these
hard drives. Microsoft, thanks again. That's the obvious bug.

Dmitri.

 

[Malke]

Hi Rock,


You know, I think I found a temporary solution and bought an external
box for this hard drive. Anyway it's more flexible, I will use it with
different machines and it will be possible to disconnect one if
required.

But anyway the problem is not solved yet. I'm also suspecting that the
same thing is going on with my first hard drive. It's very fast and
silent but nevertheless I hear a very low noise when it starts after
stop. All green functions are DISABLED everywhere. Thanks Microsoft
for this software that thinks that is smarter than the user using it.

P.S. I guess that these start/stops will decrease the life time of
these hard drives. Microsoft, thanks again. That's the obvious bug.

Dmitri.

To determine if this is hardware or software-related, boot with Knoppix.
Knoppix is a Linux distro that runs from cd. If your hard drives
hesitate under Linux too, then you know the controller on your laptop's
motherboard is failing.

Malke

 

[Rock]

Hi Rock,




You know, I think I found a temporary solution and bought an external box
for this hard drive. Anyway it's more flexible, I will use it with different
machines and it will be possible to disconnect one if required.

But anyway the problem is not solved yet. I'm also suspecting that the same
thing is going on with my first hard drive. It's very fast and silent but
nevertheless I hear a very low noise when it starts after stop. All green
functions are DISABLED everywhere. Thanks Microsoft for this software that
thinks that is smarter than the user using it.

P.S. I guess that these start/stops will decrease the life time of these
hard drives. Microsoft, thanks again. That's the obvious bug.

Dmitri.

Dmitri, post back if/when you get it sorted out so others can benefit.
Sorry I don't have any more suggestions.

 

[Just D.]

Hi Rock,

Dmitri, post back if/when you get it sorted out so others can benefit.
Sorry I don't have any more suggestions.

As I wrote a few days ago I bought HD-227 External Combo for 2.5" hard
drives - USB2/1394 from Sanmax in the nearest Fry's Electronics. WinXPPro
recognized this device without any problem. The main advantage - mobility,
if you don't need it, just plug off without any risk. It's also possible to
take this box like a simple transport device between computers, from office
to home and back. The size is limited by the maximum size available on
market now - 80 GBytes - 100 GBytes 2.5" hard drives. The first emotion -
Cool!-)

http://www.sanmax.com/products/index.cgi?display=menu3&cat=15_USB1394&subcat=11_COMBO

Dmitri.