Since installing Windows 8, my HDD is determined to kill itself!

[i_hate_toms]

Ok this computer came with Windows 7 ultimate pre-installed.
Used it that way for more than a year.
Upgraded to Windows 8 on the 6th of jan.
Take a look at this:

The graph above shows that the load/unload cycle count was at about 8k on the 6th of jan (that's when I upgraded to Windows 8).
Now, it's at about 18k.
For one year of using this computer with Windows 7, the HDD parked itself only 8k times. Then in the last two months alone, it parked the heads about 10k times. This is crazy. What's causing this? I've tried every "power plan", and none helped. And neither am i running the computer on batteries, it is ALWAYS plugged in.
The other thing I did on the 6th of jan, was i updated the BIOS, a new one was available on the HP website when i went there to get the Windows 8 drivers..
Not sure what's causing this, but it's gotta be either Windows 8, or the new BIOS.
The rate it's going up now, the HDD would probably kill itself in another few months!
PS:The "Reallocation Event Count" is at 1, and has been there since I got this computer so that's stable (not increasing with time) and i don't think a matter of concern. The real problem is this exponential increase of load/unload cycles.
What do i do? Thanks

 

[i_hate_toms]

It's just been a few minutes, and I'm using the computer (even have utorrent running), yet the graph has increased again:-

Got this software called "HP 3D DriveGuard", which is supposed to park the heads if the inbuilt "accelerometer" in the notebook detects a sudden physical-shock. The HDD indicator is supposed to turn amber for some time, and once the thing is sure that the shock event has been serviced, the heads automatically load again and the amber HDD indicator starts flashing white, the way it normally does.
It used to work in Windows 7 (i've seen the light turn amber if i move the notebook from one room to another, and turn back white in about 15 seconds after i place it on a stable surface). I've installed it in Windows 8 too, but haven't since witnessed the HDD light turn amber.
Could be because the computer is not sensing shocks (it's stupid and too risky to test this by actually physically shaking the powered-on computer and see if the auto-park system kicks in, so i guess i won't try that), Or it could be incompatible with windows 8 and hence behaving anomalously and maybe continuously parking/ un-parking the heads? Other than this, i don't have any real-time HDD app running. HDSentinel doesn't auto-start with windows, i launch it manually every once in a while to check the drive health, so it could not be HDSentinel.
Has any other HP owner here tested if the 3D driveguard software works on Windows 8? Can't think of anything else. HDD is set to AHCI mode in BIOS. UEFI is turned off (because it won't let me boot to a live linux DVD if i turn on the UEFI, don't know why -- HP acting racist? ). Maybe others hate it, but i really like using linux for casual web-browsing, straight from the DVD, without any fear of infecting my Windows 8, and hence don't want to enable UEFI, but could that be the problem? Please suggest a solution if you've got one, i really don't want to spend more money on a new HDD after this over-zealous parking behavior kills the one i now have. What's worse, the computer will keep parking the new HDD if i install one, and the new HDD will suffer a pre-mature death again.
Any help will be highly appreciated.
As i type now, i launched HDSentinel again, and the Load/ Unload cycle count, has now moved to 17653.

 

[Cromewell]

If you have software that tries to park the heads a lot that could very well be it. If you have anything putting the drive to sleep (i.e. some power management setting) that could be a factor as well. Laptops are typically setup to do this more often to save battery.

 

[strollin]

Worry about it if you want, I'd ignore it and sleep better at night.

 

[Okedokey]

Is it indexing? It is a new install.

 

[i_hate_toms]

If you have software that tries to park the heads a lot that could very well be it.

I had this software from HP [3D DriveGuard, which auto-parks the heads on sudden physical motions, like MacBooks do], but I uninstalled it completely, restarted, and the issue still persists.

If you have anything putting the drive to sleep (i.e. some power management setting) that could be a factor as well. Laptops are typically setup to do this more often to save battery.

Although a laptop, I use it as a full-on desktop replacement (of course not for heavyweight tasks, for which i still use a desktop). use it for casual web-browsing, trying out self-written programs for college, watching movies, playing songs, etc (i don't game on it, all my games are on the desktop. This laptop doesn't have a dedicated GPU, and heats up to 80 degrees if i game on it) and it never leaves my home and never runs on batteries (except once a month "discharge to 20% and recharge" to keep the batteries healthy). So power-saving is not a very important requirement. Nevertheless, I still use it on the "power-saver" profile, even when plugged in (just to throttle down the CPU and reduce heating up the battery), but, as i have mentioned at the end of my first post, the "Turn HDDs off after" setting is set to "Never". Is there some other power settings i need to check? Looked at every option in the BIOS, there's none which looks like an HDD power-management setting. I'm out of ideas. If you can suggest a fix, it'd be wonderful.
Thanks so much for your help. CF rocks. :good:

 

[i_hate_toms]

Worry about it if you want, I'd ignore it and sleep better at night.

Isn't this something to worry about?
Few years back, i read of some misconfigured Linux distros which would continuously park/ unpark the heads, and unnecessarily reduce the drive's life.
Now I see Windows doing the same. By logic, this should reduce HDD life the same way Linux did in the past. I could be wrong, but doesn't too many load-unload cycles have a detrimental effect on HDD health?
Thanks for your reply strollin, do you really think i should leave it alone and let it keep doing what it's been doing for the last two months without any fear of pre-mature drive death by abuse?
Thanks again. If you can find a solution, please help. I'm really out of ideas on what to do now

 

[wolfeking]

If you are that worried about it, then put a SSD in it. Can't park what ain't moving.

That aside, I don't think it matters that much on the life of the drive, as laptop drives are designed to do it.

 

[i_hate_toms]

Is it indexing? It is a new install.

If by indexing you mean this

then well yes, it is. would it be a better idea to uncheck the indexing checkbox?

It is a fresh install, but i did not purchase the Windows 8 DVD from microsoft, i purchased it from HP because it was cheaper. But to answer your question, yea it is a fresh install. Didn't upgrade 7 to 8. I formatted and installed 8 from scratch.

I have installed every possible update.

All the drivers are fresh downloads from HP.com, even the BIOS is new.
My anti-malware app is "Windows Defender". And my firewall is "Comodo", if that's needed
Thanks for your reply. Hope we can work up a solution. This behavior has started since i installed Windows 8. Windows 7 didn't have this problem at all.

 

[i_hate_toms]

I don't think it matters that much on the life of the drive, as laptop drives are designed to do it.

Thanks for your reply wolfeking. As long as it's not having a negative effect on drive health, m not really concerned about it. Are you sure this won't kill the HDD?
Thanks again. :good:

 

[wolfeking]

I can't really see it affecting the drive that much. Like said, laptops park the drive often anyway.

 

[i_hate_toms]

I can't really see it affecting the drive that much. Like said, laptops park the drive often anyway.

Ok, that's good to know, i was kinda worried if it's something i did while installing the new OS.
Any idea as to what exactly could be causing this? As it's evident from the first two HDSentinel graphs, the computer parked the heads 7k time in the first one whole years of use. And then in the last two months alone, it parked the heads an additional 10k times, making the count jump from 7k to 17k. It was 7k after 12 months, it's now 17k after 14 months, which i think is a bit extreme, even if not harmful. What do you think is causing this? The new BIOS? The new OS? Something I misconfigured while installing? The indexing turned on?
Also, a bit off topic, but not worth creating a new thread so i'll ask here, what exactly is the difference between the Windows 8 that you purchase from Microsoft, and the Windows 8 that you purchase from HP?

The three obvious differences i found out so far are:

1. It's much much cheaper to get it from an HP store than a MS store.

2. The HP logo is everywhere. I see a HP logo on the login-screen, the "computer properties" screen, the help and support screen, everywhere.

3.Clicking on "help" does not open the standard windows 8 help screen. Instead it opens a "HP Help and Support" screen.

Other than these, is there any other difference between the two?
Thanks for your help wolf bro, really appreciated :good:

 

[strollin]

Here's a tool that might help you alter the number of load/unloads for your drive: HDParm

I couldn't find where you mentioned which hdd you have (if you did, I missed it) but I looked up the specs for the Seagate hdd in my laptop. It says the rating is 600,000 Load/Unload cycles. If yours has a similar rating and is doing 5K/month, 60K/year Load/Unloads that means it will take 10 years for you to exceed the rating. Just for comparison purposes, my laptop running XP Pro has had 55,662 Load/Unload cycles in 36 months which works out to be 1.5K/month. This laptop is almost never powered down.

So, as I said earlier, I wouldn't worry about it.

It is very curious though, why it increased so dramatically after installing Win 8.

 

[i_hate_toms]

I couldn't find where you mentioned which hdd you have (if you did, I missed it)

Sorry Strollin, m such an ass
Mentioned everything and didn't mention the most vital piece of information
The HDD (according to device manager) is a "ST9320423AS". (Seagate??)
One good news is this graph :-

The projected date when the load/unload count exceeds threshold, according to HDSentinel, is 6/11/2029. No way i expect the HDD, or the laptop itself, to last till 2029. So i guess i'm good, i'll let it do what it's doing

Here's a tool that might help you alter the number of load/unloads for your drive: HDParm

Tried the HDParm (thnx for the link :good: ), but it doesn't seem to reduce the parking frequency, the HDD still keeps parking the heads, even if i leave the computer alone, plugged in, for like 20 seconds. But then after i installed HDParm, one good thing is that it doesn't park the heads if i am using the computer (before i installed this, it would park the heads even with utorrent seeding. Now, it doesn't.)

It is very curious though, why it increased so dramatically after installing Win 8.

It sure is. It's probably the new BIOS. If it was Windows 8, then i guess loads of people would have complained about this by now.
Thanks for the reply Strollin. CF Rocks. :good:

 

[strollin]

According to this document: Seagate Momentus 7200.4.pdf, your drive has a load/unload cycle rating of 600K so you're good to go.