HDDs aren't slowing down, it's unclear why they're staying on
HDDs aren't slowing down, it's unclear why they're staying on
Hey everyone, I own four Seagate HDDs of different sizes and models. I’ve noticed they keep spinning even when idle. I adjusted the power settings to spin them down after just one minute instead of the usual 30 minutes. Looking at Task Manager and Resource Manager, there’s no activity detected. I tried using the Seagate tools, selecting the option to force spin-down, but the drives still spin without stopping. They only hold media files—photos, audio, video—for apps like iTunes, Plex, and general data backups from phones. Even after turning off those programs and closing them, the drives keep spinning endlessly. I’ve updated as many drives in Device Manager as possible and checked the AMD/ASUS websites for chipset and driver info. With Seagate Tools, none of the drives show any firmware updates. The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI model 2613 (04/18/2024) runs with 2x32GB G.skill RAM, three NVME SSDs, and four Seagate HDDs on Windows 11 Pro 23H2. The storage stats are 22631.3447.
Have you confirmed the settings are configured to power down when idle? I usually think Windows isn't ideal for server roles, while Linux often performs better. Separating your storage from your workstation—like using a dedicated Linux server or NAS—can be much more convenient.
On Windows 11 the system usually keeps drives active to maintain quick performance since it's a user operating system, not a server. The main solution is switching to another operating system.
I’d rather not have four HDDs competing with my CPU while I play, leading to interrupts and other issues. It would be better to isolate those drives on a separate system.