Prevent external hdd from spinning down

I tried the option in the power plan and I think I tried all I can think of in the device manager but the hdd is still spinning down
Unless that is periodic read(some files are copied into the ram upon read so reading them again have no effect)or write, the hdd will spin down

It's 5TB external Seagate hdd
I am using my laptop as a desktop pc(I never move it) and the laptop have a spare usb port at the back so I want to connect it there and keep it always on as if it's inside the laptop

have you edited these 2 options as well:


Device manager > USB Root Hub > uncheck "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

also Run and disable "USB selective suspend setting"

Yes,those are the first two things I tried,the hdd spins down after around 4-5 min of inactivity

you can use either of these tools to keep the drive awake:

I was hopping for a windows fix,not writing to the hdd to keep it awake
I can already to that with AutoHotKey(I just copy and overwrite an empty txt file parodically and that keeps the hdd on)

you dont have to write to it. take the idea from the second link and just make a command prompt access the drive letter periodically. you can use it in combination with task scheduler to do so (ie - launch cmd minimized, browse to external hdd dir, then exit cmd).

hdmi said:

GitHub - stsrki/KeepAliveHD: Prevent hard-drives from going into sleep mode.

Prevent hard-drives from going into sleep mode. Contribute to stsrki/KeepAliveHD development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

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that writes to the drive. op said they dont want to do that

dacrone said:

that writes to the drive. op said they dont want to do that

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Yeah, but there is no such thing as a 'Windows fix' for this specific problem AFAIK. I know I could easily set up a task in Task Scheduler that periodically runs HDDScan.exe (from HDDScan for Windows, version 4.1) with the necessary commandline parameters to spin the HDD up, as this causes the Idle Timer countdown of the external USB HDD to be restarted (and causes the countdown to be restarted regardless of whether the HDD is still currently spinning). It's easy because HDDScan for Windows has an option to build the command for you, and that you can then inspect to find out what are the correct commandline parameters to spin up your specific HDD with HDDScan.exe (or to keep it spinning).

But IMO this still wouldn't be a better solution than KeepAliveHD excepting only maybe in situations where the HDD were to be write protected. Either way, periodically writing to the HDD does not reduce its lifespan in any noticeable way. Keeping the HDD spinning could have that effect, though, as this may depend on whether the HDD is designed to run 24/7 or has some certain, specific, limit on how many total hours it can spin, and that you should be able to find in the official datasheet of the HDD. The maximum number of times the HDD can be spun up also has its limits of course, but this doesn't necessarily always mean that keeping the HDD spinning for excessively long periods of time is the best strategy. It depends on the HDD and how you use it.

I concur that a drive made for such circumstances would be best, ie - nas drive etc. but that’s why I also stated running a command on that drive to keep it going instead of writing. Even something as simple as “dir” will suffice for OPs needs.

dacrone said:

I concur that a drive made for such circumstances would be best, ie - nas drive etc. but that’s why I also stated running a command on that drive to keep it going instead of writing. Even something as simple as “dir” will suffice for OPs needs.

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I suppose you're right, and creating an Action in a new task that repeats itself in Task Scheduler with cmd in Program/script and /c if exist e:\ (exit) (where e:\ is the path to the root of the drive in question) in Arguments would suffice, but as long as we can assume that the HDD isn't going to be write protected, I still don't see much point doing this TBH. If the drive letter changes or you want to disable the task, for example, you either have to dive into Task Scheduler again deeply to make the adjustment or have to write yourself another command/script to make it a breeze, kind of like reinventing the wheel. I will be the first to admit that the latter choice is good for when you want to train your brain muscle, though...