PowerSpec and Slow Hard Drives

JoseBR

I purchased an open box PowerSpec in March of 2023.(Model G711 Build 7501). As soon as I added four external hard drives I noticed that they take anywhere from 10-30 seconds to open. Sometimes they open right away. I figured they might open as they should if I made them internal hard drives (SATA). So I purchased SATA cable and had all four of my WD 6TB drives installed internally. This did not make the drives open instantly. When using the drives first thing in the morning, they are slow to open. I chatted with someone from MicrCenter and they said it could be the "Motherboard SATA Controller". By the way my two NAS drives which are connected via ethernet to my network open instantly. I do not have a computer virus.

What do you think? And if it's an issue with the Motherboard SATA Controller, what can be done about that?

PowerSpec_MikeW

@JoseBR

It will spin down the HDD's to save power, but it should take 7-8 seconds to wake up. Not 10-30. There is a setting under: Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options - Change Plan Settings (for your current plan) - Change Advanced Power Settings - Hard Disk - Turn off Hard Disk after (time)

If the drives are being frequently utilized when the system is on, it may be better to set them not to sleep so they're always awake. The SATA controller is built into the X570 chipset. All 8 ports are native. Typically with NAS enclosures you can set a sleep time, but default is they just run all the time. That's why you're not seeing that delay. If you listen to the tower when you try to access that drive, you should be able to hear what it wake up.

JoseBR

I don't have that setting.

"Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options - Change Plan Settings (for your current plan) - Change Advanced Power Settings - Hard Disk - Turn off Hard Disk after (time)"

My Windows 11 does not look like what you posted. All it has are power settings for the computer in general and settings for the display. I have my setting to be best performance. Not balanced. There is no hard disk specific setting.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@JoseBR

What if you do "Windows + R" and type: powercfg.cpl

Then press "OK". That should take you directly into the plan settings. Then choose "Change Advanced Power Settings".