HDDs won't spin down, not sure what is forcing them to remain active

[Jacksonyoung]

Hey all,

 

I have 4 Seagate HDDs (various sizes and models). I notice that they never spin down from inactivity. Went to power settings and told the drives to spin down after 1 minute instead of the default 30 minutes. Checking both Task Manager and Resource Manager, the drives don't show any activity. I even downloaded the Seagate tools and selected the function to force the drives to spin down. The drives only store media files (pictures, audio, video) that are used for applications like iTunes, Plex and general data backups from phones. Even after ensuring those applications and services are off and terminated, the drives will spin endlessly. I've updated as many drives within Device Manager as possible, including going to AMD/ASUS site to retrieve specific chipset and device drivers from their websites. Using Seagate Tools, none of the drives have any firmware updates.

 

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D

ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI Version 2613 04/18/2024

2x32GB G.skill RAM

3 NVME SSDs

4 Seagate HDDs

Windows 11 Pro 23H2 22631.3447

[ToboRobot]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/hdd-wont-spin-downsleep-in-windows-10/882d3821-8561-43de-8532-b0d882ec329f

Have you ensured they are set to turn off when inactive?

I generally of the opinion that Windows is a bad server OS and Linux tends to be the superior option for this use case.  

If you can separate your storage from your workstation (dedicated linux server or NAS) living with a Windows box is much nicer.

[Jacksonyoung]

14 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/hdd-wont-spin-downsleep-in-windows-10/882d3821-8561-43de-8532-b0d882ec329f

Have you ensured they are set to turn off when inactive?

I generally of the opinion that Windows is a bad server OS and Linux tends to be the superior option for this use case.  

If you can separate your storage from your workstation (dedicated linux server or NAS) living with a Windows box is much nicer.

Yes, I have gone into Windows power options and told Windows to turn off drives after 1 minute, no difference.

[jaslion]

In windows 11 windows tends to just keep the drives live to ensure max responsiveness as its a user os not a server os.

 

The only real fix is going to a different os really.

[Agall]

1 hour ago, Jacksonyoung said:

Hey all,

 

I have 4 Seagate HDDs (various sizes and models). I notice that they never spin down from inactivity. Went to power settings and told the drives to spin down after 1 minute instead of the default 30 minutes. Checking both Task Manager and Resource Manager, the drives don't show any activity. I even downloaded the Seagate tools and selected the function to force the drives to spin down. The drives only store media files (pictures, audio, video) that are used for applications like iTunes, Plex and general data backups from phones. Even after ensuring those applications and services are off and terminated, the drives will spin endlessly. I've updated as many drives within Device Manager as possible, including going to AMD/ASUS site to retrieve specific chipset and device drivers from their websites. Using Seagate Tools, none of the drives have any firmware updates.

 

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D

ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI Version 2613 04/18/2024

2x32GB G.skill RAM

3 NVME SSDs

4 Seagate HDDs

Windows 11 Pro 23H2 22631.3447

I personally would rather not have 4 HDDs all negotiating with my CPU while I'm gaming, causing interrupts and such.

 

I would recommend separating those drives to a dedicated machine as well.