Internal HDDs are suddenly stalling at random

MarkC9

Junior Member
Sep 16, 2011
24
0
0
Hello,
I have 4 internal HDDs and have had this setup for about 2 months now. I had to reformat my computer this week and have since been having a problem with my hard drives.

While I am browsing folders and occasionally even using programs, my HDDs will seize up for around 5-10 seconds. One of the drives starts to make some loading noises and then eventually they begin to work again. While this is happening I can usually use the GUI that is loaded and most things loaded into RAM, however I cannot access the HDD for anything new.

One of the internal drives was originally an external drive, the Seagate FreeAgent 500GB. I suspect it may be the culprit here. I was having this exact same problem before with it; whenever I'd plug it in through USB, even if accessing another drive, I'd have the computer seize up and have to wait for it to finish making similar sounding loading noises. Removing it from the case and plugging it in internally fixed the issue completely, until I reformatted this week.

I have checked all the cache options for the drives and they are all set the same; default which is just the top option checked. I did this as I suspected that the Seagate drive was set with the same cache options as it did when external, but it's not the case.

I did an HDD test which writes 6 billion zeroes to three 16mb files, and then reads it... no errors on all drives.

Logically the next step would be to remove the drive and see what happens. Is there anything else I should try first? I wouldn't want to lose the drive anyways, I would be looking for a way to fix it to work internally.

Here are my specs:
i7-2600k @ 4.45
GTX 580 1.25
P8Z68 V-Pro
Win 7 64-bit

SSD1: Intel 510 128GB
HDD1: Samsung HE103SJ 1TB
HDD2: Western Digital FAEX 1TB
HDD3: Seagate FreeAgent 0.5TB
HDD4: (irrelevant as problem existed before installation)

Thanks, any help is appreciated!
 

Puppies04

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2011
5,909
17
76
Logically the next step would be to remove the drive and see what happens.

Sorry but that is exactly what I would do in your situation. First step is isolating the fault and it seems you are already half way to doing this. Confirm that this drive is causing the problem before you try to find out how to fixz it or you could just be chasing shadows.
 

Blain

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
23,643
3
81
Disconnect all but your OS drive, then start adding them back.
Wait and use the drives for a period of time before adding back the next in order.
 

DarkRogue

Golden Member
Dec 25, 2007
1,243
3
76
Just a hunch.. Check your Win7 power saving settings.

Go to Power Options, customize the plan you're using, and go to advanced options. Is the "Power down the Hard Disk after ...." setting enabled? If so, disable it.

My HDD's do the same thing, but that's expected because I have this setting enabled to spin them down when idle. The 5-10 second delay in access is the time it takes for the drive to spin back up.
 

MarkC9

Junior Member
Sep 16, 2011
24
0
0
Just a hunch.. Check your Win7 power saving settings.

Go to Power Options, customize the plan you're using, and go to advanced options. Is the "Power down the Hard Disk after ...." setting enabled? If so, disable it.

My HDD's do the same thing, but that's expected because I have this setting enabled to spin them down when idle. The 5-10 second delay in access is the time it takes for the drive to spin back up.
This was indeed enabled. Can't imagine this isn't it. I will now test and get back to you guys. Thanks for pointing this out.
 
Last edited:

MarkC9

Junior Member
Sep 16, 2011
24
0
0
Problem was the power options with the hard drives. Thanks for the help!