HDD goes to sleep while not in use?

[Celerity]

I have a SSD for my OS and HDD for storage, sometimes when i'm just browsing the web with chrome (installed on SSD) I can hear a click from my HDD and when I go to read/write files from my HDD you can hear it spin up again (as if you're booting a computer). Is this normal? 

[1Scotty1]

Normal for many HDDs, especially WD Greens for example

[whipcreambeast]

Yer all my HDD do it. I have some WD blacks, blue and reds...
I believe that theres a setting in windows to stop this, but some HDD have it in the firmware to save some power

[MoDtEc]

Yer all my HDD do it. I have some WD blacks, blue and reds...

I believe that theres a setting in windows to stop this, but some HDD have it in the firmware to save some power

you cant stop it on greens for example, unless you get into the basic firmware (dos-likeish thing there) and deactivate it

[Ertman]

Normal. Its a power saving feature.

[Captain_WD]

I have a SSD for my OS and HDD for storage, sometimes when i'm just browsing the web with chrome (installed on SSD) I can hear a click from my HDD and when I go to read/write files from my HDD you can hear it spin up again (as if you're booting a computer). Is this normal? 

 

Hey Celerity,

 

All pretty much all HDDs (except those designed for surveillance systems and streaming) spin down after certain amount of time with no usage in order to save energy. This is an option in the BIOS which you can disable. Some drives (like WD Green and WD Red) have this built-in in the firmware and thus are more energy-efficient than others. The sound that you are hearing is probably the read/write head parking away from the platter. This is done to prevent any damage on the platter.

 

Captain_WD.