Seagate 3TB Backup Plus USB STDT3000600, why no spindown when PC is off?

[Muse]

I have 3 of these, bought at Costco. I have one attached to my desktop, which partially does my HDTV work. I record typically timeshifting, DVR style to a folder on the USB drive. I don't record to an internal HD because the mobo's SATA controller is lousy, maxed out at 500GB, as well.

When I put the computer in suspend (this I typically do when it's not being used), I still hear the Seagate 3TB USB HD spinning. Is this normal or desirable? Why would I want the thing spinning all the time? I'm paranoid because I've had a handful of Western Digital ELEMENTS 2TB USB HD's fail on me.

 

[smitbret]

If I see "3TB Seagate" I plan for failure. USB, internal, etc. they seem to be very unreliable in general.

https://www.backblaze.com/hard-drive.html

 

[Ketchup]

Generally USB ports retain power in sleep states. It is up to the setup of the drive as to how it handles this, as much as the power settings you select in the OS.

For example, having the drive power down may require nothing more than you enabling Select Suspend in power options. Or it may require some different settings in the BIOS.

 

[Muse]

Well, I did some searching and the first hit I went to was a Seagate page that had instructions on how to set up sleep mode on their Backup Plus drives using the Seagate Dashboard (the Dashboard is mostly to set up the backup functionality, but there is other stuff in it.). Getting it installed and working was very difficult. I got what was there at their downloads page, installed and it didn't have the features they indicated. It also said I didn't have the latest version, so I downloaded an update, had to reboot after installing it, and it still didn't have the "Manage" tab necessary to access the sleep parameter setting (3 minutes, 4, 5, etc.... Never). Then it was there, WTF. I just set it up, will see how it works.

 

[Muse]

If I see "3TB Seagate" I plan for failure. USB, internal, etc. they seem to be very unreliable in general.

https://www.backblaze.com/hard-drive.html

It seems to me they could hardly be less reliable than the WD ELEMENTS 2TB USB HD's I'd been buying. I must have had 5 or more. At least 3 died, the warranty is one year, at least the Seagates are warranted for 2 years.

Edit: I don't see the WD 2TB drives in their failure rate chart. Looks like a real good page, I'll look it over carefully! Thanks...

 

[Muse]

Using Seagate's Dashboard utility, I set the drive to go into sleep mode after 4 minutes. Put the desktop into suspend, expecting a spindown in 4 minutes, it went immediately to sleep! OK, so I turn on the machine again and set the spindown to 15 minutes, put the machine in suspend again but the drive stayed on. I now have it on and will change back to 4 minutes, WTF. The utility is ridiculously slow and primitive. Evidently not reliable, either.

 

[Ketchup]

So they DO have a utility for that. Great!

Doesn't work? Figures!

Seriously, I hope you get it working. Surprised to hear about the WDs too. Those have always been the most reliable drives for me.

 

[Muse]

So, I'd configured it to go to sleep after 4 min. of inactivity. Put the PC in suspend, the drive's light goes off immediately, no sound coming from it. I pull PC out of suspend, open Dashboard and change the interval to 15 min., put PC to sleep, the light on the HD stays on, I still hear it, waken the PC, change to 4 minutes, put PC to sleep, the light stays on, still spinning (I hear it), I walk away, come back in 5 minutes, the light is on on the drive but I hear nothing, so is evidently spun down. Wacky behavior IMO. Inconsistent, not what you want. Better than nothing, I suppose. I have the PC configured to start a recording in a few hours, will monitor and make sure everything works OK. That HD is where the recording files are saved to.

 

[tweakboy]

Seagate and Maxtor hopped in bed with eath other. Its the cheapest hardware...imo