Prob waking up secondary, sleeping HDD sometimes

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Thu Jun 13, 2002 10:48 pm

I have two PCs with 2 HDDs each (both run Win2K) and they both do this if left on, the HDDs go into sleep mode and the primary HDDs come to life by just moving the mouse or touching the spacebar BUT the secondary HDDs are not always so easy to wake up. The main PC which has two SCSI HDDs tends to be more troublesome with this, sometimes I have to take extra steps to get the secondary HDD to begin spinning (like try opening a file on that HDD, waiting for it to spin up).
This can be a tad annoying SO might anyone here have any suggestions to possibly make this situation better? Is it possible to have it so that when one HDD spins up from sleep mode, they both do at the same time?

Sean · Post by **Sean** » Fri Jun 14, 2002 6:43 am

I would guess that they try, but there isn't enough power, because hard drives suck tons of power to start up. That's my only idea.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Jun 14, 2002 8:07 am

Can't be a power issue. If it was a power issue the computer would shut down or reset when the drive spins up.

Evil, I've seen something like you describe on systems with dual IDE drives as well. Moving the mouse or tapping the keyboard only wakes the drive with the Windows folder on it (usually the boot drive) but the other drive won't spin up until you access a file on it.

Nothing much you can do as far as I know.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Fri Jun 14, 2002 6:24 pm

Bummer. I was hoping that someone knew of a "switch" (of some kind) that'd bring both HDDs to life at the same time but apparently not.
Once the second HDD spins up, it doesn't cause any other problems but it's just the initial thing after it's been sleeping (hours w/o use when the dual drive PCs are on 24/7) that's a tad annoying.
I can deal with it but just thought I'd ask here in the event that a known "cure" existed.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Jun 14, 2002 8:44 pm

If they're server grade SCSI drives (and most good ones are) I'd just leave them running all the time. They're designed for it.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Fri Jun 14, 2002 10:18 pm

OK, sounds like a plan then. Thanks.

DocSilly · Post by **DocSilly** » Sat Jun 15, 2002 4:01 am

Oh, so there are non-server grade SCSI drives

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Jun 15, 2002 9:27 am

Hey DOC... I seriously doubt there are any non-server grade SCSI drives made anymore unless they're made by Fujitsu

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Sat Jun 15, 2002 10:40 am

Don't worry, I'm quite sure that Seagate Cheatah X15s are server drives and on my older PC with 2 older Maxtor IDE HDDs, I've had them on 24/7 for years w/o problems either but that PC (being a spare and used for music DLs sometimes) is usually kept off now.