Prevent external drive sleeping?

Paul wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Paul wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Rasta Robert wrote:

On 2016-05-24, Terry Pinnell wrote:
I'm seeking some way to prevent my external 3 TB WD 'Elements' drive
(E from 'sleeping'.

At present, after a period of non-use, when I open a file (JPG, TXT,
etc), usually by d-clicking it in its XP Explorer folder on my
internal C: drive, it sometimes takes at least 20 seconds to open.
Towards the end of that period I see the WD's LED flash a few times,
so it's clearly because the operation had to wake it up.

Digressing for a minute, I don't understand that anyway. If I open a
file on C: I don't really see why E: enters the equation. But I've
seen it suggested by those whose grasp of OS technicalities is far
greater than mine as down to caching. I backup nightly from data on C:
to E:. So I'm guessing that when I open my first file on C: in the
morning, XP still somehow associates that file with E: (maybe because
it was one of those incrementally backed up) and duly wakes it up - at
glacial speed.

Therefore ideally I'd like to keep it awake. I'll pay the extra
electricity costs.

There seems no relevant setting in Properties

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...D-Puzzle-3.jpg

so I'm wondering if there's a tool or registry hack that might do the
job please?

Failing that I'll try writing a macro (or batch file if I can remember
how) that simply opens and closes an arbitrary file on E: at half hour
intervals.

That's what a few available 'keep external harddisk spinning' programs
also do.
My Disk Is Spinning:
http://rockitdjsoftware.com/mdis.htm
KeepAliveHD:
https://keepalivehd.codeplex.com/
Drive Keep Alive:
https://www.warrenheld.com/drive-keep-alive/
Many thanks. Duly studied all three, tried two and now running
KeepAliveHD. Saved me some work!

Found this in the KeepAliveHD code. The operating principle...

this.label2.Text = "KeepAliveHD is a simple program which writes
a small text file every few minutes " +
"to your external hard disk drive(s) to
keep them from going into auto-sleep mode" +
".";

So that's the designer comment.

I would examine the SMART statistics, to see how
successful the approach is. There should be a parameter
there for start-stops, so you can see whether the
time constant selected, actually works. Never underestimate
how stupid the drive firmware is.

Paul

Thanks Paul. With my relatively low technical expertise in mind, could
you remind me (if I ever knew) how to "examine the SMART statistics"
please?


Background here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T

This free version of a popular program, has a Health tab,
with a Start/Stop count.

http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

This is my boot drive, right now.

http://s33.postimg.org/ee9ti1m67/startstop.gif

Paul

Thanks, I'll investigate over next day or so.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

On Tuesday, May 24, 2016 at 4:47:21 AM UTC-5, Terry Pinnell wrote:
I'm seeking some way to prevent my external 3 TB WD 'Elements' drive
(E from 'sleeping'.

At present, after a period of non-use, when I open a file (JPG, TXT,
etc), usually by d-clicking it in its XP Explorer folder on my
internal C: drive, it sometimes takes at least 20 seconds to open.
Towards the end of that period I see the WD's LED flash a few times,
so it's clearly because the operation had to wake it up.

Digressing for a minute, I don't understand that anyway. If I open a
file on C: I don't really see why E: enters the equation. But I've
seen it suggested by those whose grasp of OS technicalities is far
greater than mine as down to caching. I backup nightly from data on C:
to E:. So I'm guessing that when I open my first file on C: in the
morning, XP still somehow associates that file with E: (maybe because
it was one of those incrementally backed up) and duly wakes it up - at
glacial speed.

Therefore ideally I'd like to keep it awake. I'll pay the extra
electricity costs.

There seems no relevant setting in Properties

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...D-Puzzle-3.jpg

so I'm wondering if there's a tool or registry hack that might do the
job please?

Failing that I'll try writing a macro (or batch file if I can remember
how) that simply opens and closes an arbitrary file on E: at half hour
intervals.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

That's interesting.

It does not happen with Linux.

Andy