Hdd heads are reading/working when pc is inactive issue

[ismeit]

hi again !

I have an old sata hdd, 250GB, win 7 x64
Fresh install and partitioned (C, and D drive)
C: hosts win os only.

I noticed if the pc is inactive for i.e. 20minutes, no screensaver is running etc.
and suddenly the hard drive is making noise,, like continuous reads and stops
after some i.e. 3-5 minutes ? then again after some unknown time. i.e after 40min.

Is this a problem with win OS, or the hdd is really old and needs replace ment ?
i have not many programs on pc, i.e a word processor and some other light
software. RAM 2GB.

Any clues what it causes this and how to fix it. Shall i go to power management and
switch off the hdd after a while etc ?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, ismeit.

I don't know what might be causing the drive to write from time to time or to spin-up, it might be due to its firmware or something else. Unless you've had issues with it while using it, it might be OK. However, just to be on the safe side, I'd recommend that you download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic tool and test it for errors and/or bad sectors, so that you know what's its condition. If the manufacturer doesn't offer a diagnostic tool or you decide that you want to double-check, you can select a 3rd party tool from this article as well: https://www.lifewire.com/free-hard-drive-testing-programs-2626183.

However, since there's a possibility that there might be a problem with the drive, you should backup your important data before you start with the tests, just as a precaution.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

 

[ismeit]

hi boogieman WD,

thanks for your reply to my Q.

I will check the utilities to examine hdd for errors.

The procedure i describe is definitely not new to me, and it also happens on my mac.

On the mac, i hear it reading/writing at startup though and then stops the noise, so i guess
OSX is loaded ok. No problem after that.

If the drive after check appears i.e to have a problem, should i format normaly, or try to find
a low level format utility and low level it first, and if yes how can i find best settings for the hdd.

thanks again for your help

 

[Boogieman_WD]

If the drive itself has a problem detected by the diagnostic tests, more often than not (if not always) it's not something you could just fix. You might end up replacing the drive. But let's hope for the best and that it won't come to that.

The low level format option is OK sometimes, only if the issues is due to bad sectors and only if they are not too many. However, as already mention it's not guaranteed to help.