How to disconnect from hard drives. Hard drive turns off during operation

Hard drive problems are an extremely serious problem associated with the risk of losing important data and information. That is why you should be extremely careful about any malfunctions in order to prevent their removal.

A typical problem that users deal with is the hard drive turning off during operation. Most often this is manifested by the disappearance of the folder structure from the “My Computer” section. Let's look at several reasons for such situations and try to eliminate them in an accessible way.

Poor cable contact

The SATA cable connector is not particularly reliable, which is why it can lose contact even due to slight vibrations. This leads to the consequences described above.

So, what should you do to prevent your hard drive from turning off? First of all, to solve this problem you need to check the connection. It is possible that contact was lost when connecting to the motherboard or the drive itself. You should also pay attention to the location of connection to the power source.

Remember that the SATA cable cannot be bent more than 90 degrees, so never fold it. If you did this, then it could have deteriorated and will need to be replaced with a new one.

It should also be said about the low-quality power supply connectors for SATA drives, which are prone to deformation and swelling. This very often leads to poor quality contact. The hard drive, of course, works, but at the same time it will think about it, as in the case of existing bad sectors. Therefore, make sure that the connectors are in order and properly connected to the socket.

Overheat

Another extremely common cause of a variety of PC problems. If your hard drive is full and reappears after you restart your computer, it may. To check the temperature, you can use special utilities, of which there are a huge variety today, for example HDTune, AIDA64 and others. With their help, you can find out the parameters you require for certain components.

The normal operating temperature is 30 degrees, the maximum permissible is no more than 45. If your temperature is higher, that is, the propeller overheats, then you should urgently take measures to improve the cooling system:

Power supply (PSU)

Its unstable operation or lack of power often leads to problems with the drives and to the fact that it periodically turns off. Usually this is also accompanied by frequent involuntary computer reboots.

If you have this symptom, try changing the power supply. Why is this necessary? It is likely that this is where the whole problem lies.

Drive failure

If all of the above did not help and the hard drive still periodically disappears, then perhaps the reason is in itself. First of all, check it on . If they are not found, move on to the next step.

HDD serviceability. To check this, connect it to another computer. If nothing changes, then the hard drive is broken and must be replaced. In a situation that arises, the first thing to do is take care of the information stored on it. Try copying it to another medium while yours is still somewhat functional, otherwise you may lose it. Of course, experienced specialists with the appropriate knowledge will help you restore it if something happens, but you shouldn’t take risks.

If the hard drive works fully on another PC, then the problem may be in some other component. Pay attention to the motherboard, which affects its functioning and, in case of problems, can interfere with it. In this case, repairing or replacing it will fix everything.

Power settings in Windows OS

It also often happens that the drive turns off spontaneously when the computer is actively working. To fix this, you need to set the shutdown time value to “Never” in Windows settings.

Instructions for changing the value on Windows 7/8/10:

Now you know what the problem could be if the drive periodically turns off or disappears, and how to fix it yourself without the help of third-party specialists.

How to temporarily turn off your computer's hard drive? This action may be required, for example, when installing a second EFI-Windows systems. If the second media of a computer operating in BIOS UEFI, install Windows, it will not have its own boot EFI-section. And it will be dependent on the system bootloader on the first media. But if the first disk with system partitions is disconnected, the second Windows, during its installation process, will create for itself all the partitions necessary for offline startup.

And it will be able to start without problems if the bootloader of the first system is damaged. And perhaps the hard drive needs to be made temporarily invisible only in the environment of the current operating system, so that no one needs access to it.

Let us consider below how these and similar questions are resolved.

To prevent user data media from being temporarily visible in the operating system environment, you can disable it in the system device manager. Select it in the section "Disk devices", indicate disabling in the context menu.

That's it - now he's undergoing surgery SSD or HDD will no longer appear either in Windows Explorer or in third-party programs with access to data. The system can be turned off, rebooted - the disabled media will not turn on itself without our direct participation.

You can turn it on in the reverse way.

2. Disk management

In the Windows environment, there is another place where you can deactivate information devices so that they do not appear in the operating system environment and cannot be accessed using programs.

This is the Disk Management Console.

In her window on the right SSD or HDD call the context menu, click "Offline".

To turn it on, do the reverse procedure - click.

How to disconnect a hard drive outside the operating system environment? So that, as mentioned above, when installing a second Windows, it will have its own bootloader on, respectively, the second media. Or perhaps we are talking about experiments with the installation MacOS or Chrome OS, when it is better to remove unnecessary information devices with valuable data, so as not to mistakenly format them or delete their markup along with the contents. In this case, a shutdown will be required either BIOS, or hardware.

3.BIOS

The ability to disable any of the computer information devices can be implemented in BIOS. Or it may not be implemented. Here you need to understand each individual case. If this is possible in BIOS is present, it is usually located in the peripheral settings sections - SATA- or IDE-devices. You need to select the desired media among the connected devices and set its value to "Disabled".

4. Hardware disconnect

100% -but it’s working, it’s also a universal method of deactivation SSD or HDD– disconnection SATA- cable or power cable (optional) inside the system unit PC or laptop case.

Although a large number of users have switched to using SSDs, HDDs continue to remain the most popular data storage method. The reason is quite simple - cost. Traditional HDD offers a very low RUB/GB ratio. For just a couple of thousand rubles you can buy a disk with a capacity of a couple of terabytes, while an SSD of similar capacity will cost much more. This is why many people buy a small SSD for the system, and store games and other large content on the disk. When the HDD is used as a secondary disk, the user may encounter an interesting phenomenon where the disk turns off while the computer is running. This in turn leads to unpleasant bugs that are very annoying. This instruction will tell you how to fix this problem.

Computer freezes when turning on hard drive

The symptom of this problem is quite simple. When you try to open a file on the hard drive or save something on the HDD, the system freezes for a second or two, after which you hear the characteristic sound of the hard drive starting (starting rotation and further rustling) and the computer returns to working condition. This happens because Windows disables the drive to save power consumption. When idle or working with applications installed on the SSD, Windows does not access the disk and disconnects it after some time. The disk turns off and rotation stops. As soon as there is a need to read or write information on the drive, the computer turns on the disk and spins it up again. Unlike an SSD, a hard drive takes much longer to access information, not to mention spin up. This is why the system freezes for a couple of seconds.

In fact, this is a “feature, not a bug.” On laptops, this approach allows you to slightly reduce power consumption. The disk is idle, which means there is no point in supplying constant power to it. Windows disables the drive, which makes the battery last a little longer. On desktop computers there is no need to save energy, so for users of familiar PCs, such stops are only once again annoying. They also annoy laptop owners, but on these devices at least these friezes can be justified when it comes to extreme energy savings.

Here's how to solve this problem:

Please note that the hard drive shutdown setting is adjusted for each power plan separately. If you switch your laptop to power saving mode or high performance mode, the system will apply the configured settings. If the circuit is set to the standard value, the drive will turn off after 20 minutes and you will encounter freezes again. Change the HDD timeout for each power plan according to the above diagram.

Another reason why you should increase the time after which the drive shuts down is for longevity. The more you turn the drive off and on, the sooner it will fail. Yes, constant rotation of the spindle will also sooner or later lead to bearing wear, but for a modern hard drive, constant switching on and off is much more destructive. This is why it is better to leave the disk running rather than spin it up every time you use it. You not only save yourself from system freezes, but also slightly extend the life of the drive. By the way, the lifespan of a hard drive is also greatly influenced by its temperature. It shouldn't be too low or too high. This is discussed in a separate article. We also recommend you or SSD to avoid sudden data loss due to disk failure.

Windows 10 has such a feature - if you do not use the computer for a while, the system not only turns off the monitor, but also disconnects the disks over time. I have never used this even in previous versions of Windows.

I don’t know what is more beneficial or harmful from this, but on the Internet I realized that it is better for the system not to disconnect the disks like that. You may have noticed this - when you return to the computer, the hard drive makes a strange sound, this is the sound of “starting up”, so to speak.

In general, I don’t dare to say, but it seems that without this “disconnector” hard drives will last longer.

The hard drive is the only mechanical device in the computer (unless you count the fans, of course) and it is damaged by frequent shutdowns and startups; it must either work or not. And it is better to minimize transitions from one state to another.

This is easy to do, you need to open the control panel:

And at the very bottom of the page (at least for me) there will be an item Power supply, select it:

Now you will have the power scheme you have chosen here, click on it opposite Settings:

And here, by the way, I advise you to immediately set (if necessary) the screen timeout and the time after which the computer goes into sleep mode when the computer is idle (that is, when no one is using it). Click on additional settings:

And now a window will open where you need to specify that the hard drive does not turn off itself - to do this, set the time to zero and click the button OK:

After this, save the changes:

That's all, I hope the problem is solved, and if not, write in the comments!

The issue of data storage for many computer users is quite acute. With the widespread development of the Internet, more and more people are starting to use cloud storage, but they are not always convenient, especially when the Internet speed is not the highest. In such situations, hard drives – external or internal – come to the rescue. But there is one problem with them - the hard drive is disabled in Windows if it is not a system drive. Fixing this situation is quite simple, which will protect the hard drive from imminent failure.

Why is it dangerous when the hard drive turns off during inactivity?

It is very easy to determine that the second hard drive on the computer stops while the system is running. This can be done according to two main criteria:

• Sound. If we are talking about a hard drive with a rotating spindle (and this is what is used in 99.9% of cases as file storage), then its on/off processes can be clearly heard;
• Speed ​​of work. If an additional hard drive in a computer stops, it takes 3-5 seconds to return to working condition. It is very easy to notice when accessing files on the disk that it does not respond for some time - at this moment the hard disk gains the necessary speed so that the system can read data from it.

There are active discussions on the Internet about whether it is dangerous for Windows to constantly turn off the hard drive. When considering this issue, we are talking about 3 main parameters.

First of all, it talks about the number of acceleration/stop cycles of the hard drive. There is an opinion that the software of any hard drive contains a certain number of cycles, after which it becomes unusable. On average, a modern hard drive has about 250-500 thousand such cycles; this is how many times during operation a hard drive can perform the process of stopping and accelerating before the device heads wear out.

The second parameter discussed is energy efficiency. When the hard drive is turned off, it is no longer supplied with power from the power supply, and it operates exclusively using the SATA protocol. The power of the SATA protocol is enough for the disk to be detected by the system at low speeds (which is why it is visible in the “My Computer” column). However, when accessing a disk, to read information from it or write new information, additional energy is required, which the power supply automatically begins to transmit. Thus, constant turning on/off of the disk leads to wear not only of its heads, but also of the power supply elements. However, there is also a positive side to this solution - saving electrical energy. There is no talk of any fantastic efficiency, and according to average data, by turning off the additional hard drive while the system is running, it is possible to save 2-3 Kilowatts per month.

The third parameter is the wear and tear of the hard drive elements during operation. By preventing the additional hard drive in your computer from falling asleep, its rotation speed remains constant. This means that all elements of the hard drive are wearing out. Experts have come up with an interesting theory that 5 hours of continuous operation of a hard drive is equal, in terms of wear and tear on its components, to one stop/start cycle of the hard drive. Naturally, this figure is an average result.

After reviewing the information provided, everyone can conclude that it is necessary to turn off the power to the additional hard drive while the system is operating. Below we will provide instructions on how to use Windows to prevent your computer’s additional hard drive from falling asleep while the operating system is actively running. Using the same instructions, by changing one parameter, you can configure the hard drive to be disconnected from the main power supply after a certain period of time of its inactivity.

How to prevent the hard drive from turning off (stopping) while working?

In a situation where the hard drive turns off after some time of active operation, you should set the time after which it will turn off in the Windows operating system settings, or set this value to “Never”.

We invite you to read the detailed instructions for Windows 10, which are also relevant for earlier versions of the operating system:

After completing the specified settings, the computer’s hard drive will no longer turn off spontaneously, but will do so after the time you set.