Hello,
I am running computer in pure SATA (not RAID) configuration on Win XP. Using nVidia SATA Drivers.

Everytime I restart the computer, then windows switch HDD off. No problems occur but I am afraid it is not absolutely healthy for HDD. Is this normal behavious for SATA devices under Windows XP?

Many thanks for your help.

Petr

This "Windows switch HDD off", does it means that you've heard the HDD spin down ? or
Does it make any strange noise(s) while it restarting ?
What is your HDD ?

Yes, I hear HDD spin down and before Win starts to booting up, spin up. No strange noise at all.

Just like HDD in portable box, after some time is not being used.

My HDD is WD.

I don't really know the behaviour between Nvidia boards with HDD (i never have a chance to buy it), in my experience, while i'm restarting i never heard my HDD spin down, i just heard a small ticking noise (i think that is the time where the head move into the inner disk to begin the boot process).

There's a low possibility that your PSU are failing or not enough juice for the whole system. You can have a try to check that.

But if everything is in the normal range, another possibility, maybe your board has a "saving electricity" feature or kinda like that. While your PC boot the BIOS, it think that it doesn't need to spin up the HDD, no HDD spin equal saving electricity. You can give a try to check mainboard manual or website FAQ, there's possibility that they answer this already.

I don't think you have anything to worry about hribek25, my computer does that with everything. My HDD's, cpu fans, video card fans, they all spin down and spin back up when I restart. I think it might just be the behavior or different boards because my roommate's computer doesn't do it. As long as your HDD doesn't make any hard metal-on-metal clicking sounds then you're good.