External HD falls asleep at the wheel

Siberian

Member
I've got an external hard drive (not SSD) on which I store all kinds of stuff. I notice when I run a media-file that when the file has been running for a while, it hangs for a few seconds while the drive spins up to resume play. I'm not into how these drives work, but as the heading says it reminds me of a driver falling asleep at the wheel. Why does it even go to sleep while the file is running? It's not a big thing, but it's quite annoying when it happens. Can something be done about it?
 

JaredDM

Active Member
Try this: Control Panel > Power Options > Change Advanced Power Settings > USB Settings > USB selective suspend setting -> set to "Disabled"
 

JaredDM

Active Member
Basically, the OS is sending a suspend signal to the USB device when it thinks it has been inactive long enough, and the drive is deciding to spin down to conserve power.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
As a side note it can also do this to your primary drive, usually worth disabling as well to eliminate the second or two of hang when resuming operation after sitting for a while.
 
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