X61s Hard Drive always spinning...

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iamdmc · #1 Post by **iamdmc** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:35 am

Hi,

I noticed that my hard drive is almost always spinning. This wouldn't be such a problem if it didn't seem to cut my battery life in half (or 2/3) and if it wasn't so loud. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the "windows paging file" in Windows Vista that uses space on my HDD "as if it were memory". I have 4GB of RAM - I think that should be enough! Should I set the computer to "no paging file" or are there other things I could try?

Thanks in advance

#2 Post by **ryengineer** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:39 am

Perhaps think of getting a newer drive than 5400 rpm.

trekrema · #3 Post by **trekrema** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 8:26 am

ryengineer wrote:Perhaps think of getting a newer drive than 5400 rpm.

???

OP, what are your power management settings?

rhema83 · #4 Post by **rhema83** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:42 am

Maybe it's the Indexing Service. Check its settings in Control Panel and remove directory that you don't want indexed.

iamdmc · #5 Post by **iamdmc** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:25 pm

It says that my "Indexing is Complete" - does it just re-index ALL THE TIME? If I turn off indexing now, will I still have fast searches?

For power settings, I'm using a custom setting called "Ultra Powersave" which saves more energy than the Lenovo "Maximum Battery Life". Basically, I have the hard drive set to spin down after 2 minutes of non-use, but it's hardly ever not spinning. Indexing options are set to "minimal" on this power option (there was no option for "off on battery" - which there definitely should be. Freakin Vista.

As for the 7200RPM drive idea, yeah I've definitely considered that. The thing is that with the new drive, it may keep spinning just like this one... only faster (nothing gained)

#6 Post by **ryengineer** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:29 pm

trekrema wrote:
ryengineer wrote:Perhaps think of getting a newer drive than 5400 rpm.
???
OP, what are your power management settings?

How do I get my HDD to stop spinning?

iamdmc · #7 Post by **iamdmc** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:43 pm

Mmmhmm, that was me - and since then, things haven't gotten better. I need some new ideas.

Man, I can't wait until SSD is cheap enough. No sound but the fan. No worries about HDD power drain (spin up, spin down)

pibach · #8 Post by **pibach** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 5:57 pm

There are a lot services in Vista that frequently access the HDD. To get it really asleep it requires heavy tweaking, in depth knowledge, and ideally an SD card to read/write to in occasion.

Under Linux I could easily get the HDD completely off as after a while of usage, most apps and data are cached in RAM (I have 3GB).

X61s Hard Drive always spinning...

X61s Hard Drive always spinning...

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