Hard drives spins only on access W8.1

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Hello everyone!
I am using an Asus N56jr laptop with one ssd as a primary hdd and second (regular hdd)for storage.The problem is when I access this scnd hdd I have a small delay and the hdd starts to spin. I have changed power options for hard disks to never but the problem still exists. I have to say that even when I am listening to music I get small pauses ,the hdd spins and after that the songs continue.Can anyone advise on a possible fix for this. I am using Ahci mode.
Thank you in advance
 
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Boogieman_WD
Well I guess you could try with the manufacturer's customer support to ask if there's some kind of software which could alter that feature if it's a part of the drive's firmware.
Also, have you changed the power options to "never" for both when the laptop is "plugged in" and when it's "on battery"?
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Boogieman_WD

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Hey there, atom heart.
I'd recommend that you backup all of your important data, just to be on the safe side. Then I'd suggest that you download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic tool (or a 3rd party diagnostic tool if you don't know the manufacturer of the HDD or if it doesn't offer such a tool), to test the drive with it and see if anything out of the ordinary pops-up.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD
 
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Hey thanks for your reply !
I have recently installed Debian and the same goes here as well . So I suppose it is not a OS problem. The drive is an HGST 1T.
I have to mention that this laptop came with one hard drive (actually this HGST drive ) and a DVD drive. I have removed the DVD and installed an SSD (Samsung Pro) . One thing I want to check is to remove the SSD and boot with a live CD and the HGST drive , to see if it is a mobo problem not supporting 2 hdd??
I will download the diagnostic tools as well .
If anything comes in mind please let me know !
Thank you !
 
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Boogieman_WD

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The mobo should have no trouble supporting a second HDD unless there's a problem with the SATA port, it also might be a faulty SATA cable or something. It's best that you test the drive and see if everything's OK with it. But as I said before, you should backup your important data before that, just to be on the safe side.
 
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Hey there !
I downloaded the HGST diagnostic tool like you advised , and performed a Surface Long Test and a SMART extended test (This took about half a day or so ) . Both passed with no errors . I noticed that while performing the SMART test the drive was fully functional with no delays , spins up or down. Contrariwise when I downloaded a torrent (ca 800MB) and set the destination to THIS drive , there were this spin up and down all the time. The download speed also spiked up and down . I did this using Debian 8 .
I am really confused .. What else should I try?
Like I said in my first post the drives are in AHCI mode
Thank you in advance

 
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Boogieman_WD

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Hmm, this is a bit of puzzle. If the drive is indeed fine, this could be an issue with the SATA cable or the HDD caddy. In order to isolate the problem, you'll have to do a bit of testing - the HDD with a different computer, the caddy with a different drive etc. in order to find out if the same thing happens. If nothing seems to give out any clues on what could be the issue, I'd recommend that you get in touch with the laptop manufacturer's customer support (I suppose the drive that came with it is covered by the laptop manufacturer, rather than the drive's manufacturer) to ask for further assistance. However that doesn't exclude help from the drive manufacturer's customer support, so you can try both.

Good luck!
 
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Yes I swapped the drives , so I checked both : drive in different sata port , HDD Caddy with different drive . The exact same thing happend .
My question is if this spin up /down will shorthen my disk's lifespan !
 
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Boogieman_WD

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Well HDDs are mechanical devices which means that the more they are used, the more likely they are to wear down with time. But the spin up/down should not affect the drive's lifespan that much in my opinion. As you know you can get a drive and use it for a month before it fails or get one which can work for more than 5 years without a hitch, so I really can't predict if this would shorten the life of that particular HDD. If this is some sort of glithc in the drive's firmware - it's best that you get in touch with the HDD manufacturer's customer support for further info.
 
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Just for the input I have managed to solve this in Debian . There is an Advanced Power Management option there which you can disable. This solved the spin up/down thing , so I suppose it's an OS issue . Now I need a solution for Windows too :)

 
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Boogieman_WD

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Well I guess you could try with the manufacturer's customer support to ask if there's some kind of software which could alter that feature if it's a part of the drive's firmware.
Also, have you changed the power options to "never" for both when the laptop is "plugged in" and when it's "on battery"?
 
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