Windows 10: HDD spinning down/clicking every 30 seconds

Hi there, first-time poster here. Usually I'm one to exhaust every single possibility before asking for help, but as of right now I am rather desperate to find an answer because this issue is driving me MAD.

As stated in the title, my second HDD (Samsung HD155UI, 1,5 TB) is, as of today, clicking every 30 seconds, as in briefly parking the head or something. I've been using that drive for over 3 years without one single problem, and only recently (i.e. less than a week ago) did I upgrade to Windows 10 - while at the same time swapping out some parts for good measure - CPU, Motherboard, GPU and RAM. Of course I did the whole clean install shebang, and in the beginning everything ran absolutely smoothly. Installed all of my apps and drivers, moved all of my data back, and no problems whatsoever. Yes, Windows is activated.

Now today I'm playing - ironically - Clicker Heroes on Steam. I usually leave it idling in the background while I'm doing other stuff on the PC, however I've started to notice this regular clicking sound. At first I thought it was my external hard drive - turned that off, no dice. Eavesdropped into my PC and quickly found out it was the secondary HDD, as my main SSD couldn't possibly be the source of the noise. Panic ensued, immediately ran a backup in case the drive went south. During the backup, no clicking whatsoever. After it was done, the clicking resumed.
Chkdsk'd the quick way, and once with /r - during the checks, the drive's quiet as a ninja, but once those completed without errors, click. Click. Click.

CrystalDiskInfo also shows my Drive in good health, and I have the latest firmware for it too. Event viewer showed no irregularities (apart from one single "ID 157 - Disk 2 has been surprise removed"), so I thought it must be some idle setting or power management thing. Checked power options a thousand times, "turn off hard disk after" setting was initially at 20, I set it to 0, then 60, then 120. Nothing changed whatsoever.
BIOS power management settings are all turned off as far as I am concerned. Pretty sure I combed everything through, unless there's some hidden setting.

Now, cue the Resource monitor. It clearly shows some activity spikes (blue curve) every time the drive clicks, which happens exactly every 30 seconds. However, I cannot for the life of me identify what it is that is causing these spikes.




At some point I suspected something with the Chipset or something, maybe RST was messing with my HDD. But uninstalling it (as well as disabling RST in BIOS) yielded no substantial improvement.

So now what's left for me to do is:

- Boot into Safe mode, see if issue prevails there
- Plug the SATA cable of the HDD into a different port, see if that changes anything
- Try a different hard drive (that I don't have right now so meh)
- reinstall Windows 10 (last resort, I'd rather avoid this)

I will update this post as I go, but I already wanted to take in some feedback in case someone already knows what's up, and maybe save me some time. Beyond the fact that the clicking is super annoying, I don't think the drive doing that this often does it any good...

I googled this issue extensively but couldn't really find any report that closely matched my current issue. I did find a similar thread on these forums though (Win10 pausing every 30 seconds on ASUS Laptop. Sleep mode issue too. - Windows 10 Forums), but unlike the OP I have no issues with sleep mode nor does my OS "pause" per se. I do notice some slight hiccups in Clicker Heroes when the spikes occur, but other stuff like Youtube videos seem unaffected.

So yeah. Long post, but I hope some good soul can help. That would be very much appreciated... I'd be glad to provide any info and logs if required.

--
Before posting I already have an update: Reviewing the Event Viewer now shows me a very large number of Event 225 warnings right before some of the many restarts of mine in the past few hours, e.g.
"The application \Device\HarddiskVolume5\Windows\System32\VSSVC.exe with process id 1528 stopped the removal or ejection for the device PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8C82&SUBSYS_79221462&REV_00\3&11583659&0&FA"
Hmm??

--
Edit1: in Safe Mode, the drive ran smoothly. Now I'm back on the unsafe side, eh. Doesn't click until I run Clicker Heroes. Don't tell me a Flash game that's on Steam is causing these issues... If it wasn't 2 AM I'd try to troubleshoot and uninstall any apps until I find the culprit... happy days ahead.

:)

 

Troubleshooting help: Second HDD not spinning down even without any activity

I'm having trouble getting the second drive in my system to spin down when it's not in use.

My system is an older i3 Intel NUC system with an M2 SSD containing the an clean install of Win 10 Pro x64), no additional software running. The second HDD is used as a data store for large video files only.

Even though I've set the hdd standby setting in Windows down to 10 minutes and there's no access to the second drive, the HDD will just keep spinning on and never go into standby.

I've already had Process Monitor check for any access to the disk ("path" to "D:") for a couple of days straight and it fails to register any activity on the drive.

So why won't Windows put the unused second drive into standby? Any way to troubleshoot this issue?

 

Sytem_Thread_Exception_Not_Handled

Hello and thanks for the information. I was able to boot from the Windows 7 disc and things are back to Windows 7. Now I would like to reattempt to install Windows 10. When I click on the Windows 10 app it says that the download is complete. It says upgrade
is available. When I click on "ok, let's continue" I get the spinning "Working on it" wheel that spins for about 30-40 seconds then the app shuts down. It does nothing else. Any suggestions? Thanks

 

You didn't say that you upgraded your PSU as well, is it up to the task?

I ask this because I've encountered similar hard drive issues with PSUs that had faults or couldn't handle the system load.

You can check the voltages with this: HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID

And do a more extensive monitoring/logging/analysis with this: HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 HWiNFO64 - Hardware Information, Analysis and Monitoring Tools

Report back with your findings.

I have 'fixed' this problem before by hooking the drive up to a different power connector if a rail has gone bad in a multi-rail PSU.

 

Hi Nus, thanks for your quick reply, caught me right before going to bed.
In case you missed my ninja edit in my OP, the clicking does not occur in Safe Mode.

Anyhow, about the PSU wattage, it's a 550W Be Quiet E8 something something with 80Plus Silver. Granted there are more efficient boxes out there by now but so far it's done its job exceedingly well and should stem the calculated 367W load with ease (roughly 10W more load than my previous setup).

I don't know how HWinfo logs are handled around here, so I'll just attach the logfile here REDACTED.LOG, hopefully it works.

Should you need more info, let me know.

Edit: Interestingly enough, I haven't gone to sleep yet, but will soon (TM). Even more interesting, the clicking disappears completely when the sensor window is open. As such, sensor logging does show nothing out of the ordinary... Crud.

 

I can't make sense of this issue, though I'm slowly getting nearer to accurately describing it.

- When completely idle, when being monitored or when working (like during chksdk), there are absolutely no clicks.
- However, when accessing the drive at random intervals, it clicks once and will click again after a certain idle time. After checking with Sysinternals Process Monitor, I initially thought it had something to do with Clicker Heroes (which apparently saves to file every 30 seconds), because the clicks always coincided with the save processes. But 1, the game saves on C: and not on the clicking D: drive; and 2, the issue also occurs beyond the game, i.e. when something accesses D: after a certain idle time.

I would love to put it down as the HDD's aggressive APM, as I've read a million times by googling what feels like the entire night. But why now? I simply cannot fathom why, after upgrading to Windows 10 and the hardware changes which seemed to have gone down without any hitches so far, it suddenly starts doing this now. It's not like the drive suddenly remembered it has APM and aggressively started enforcing it - I also can't find any other reports of HD155UIs failing like that. (I could try to upgrade its firmware though I might already have done so in the past, hard to find out if the updated FW bears the same version number...)

Any-bloody-how, I could narrow it down to:
- buggy Intel Chipset or drivers
- some software messing with the drive
- defectuous SATA cable/port or power cable
- defectuous power supply
- impending hard drive failure

The latter 3 seem unlikely, as the clicking does not occur in Safe Mode at all. So it must be some software issue... right?

 

Your PSU is good quality, and if working properly is comfortably powerful enough to run your system. I would only expect it to cause this behaviour if it had a fault. Still, it wouldn't hurt to connect the drive to a different power rail, and try a different data cable just to eliminate those possibilities, as your symptoms are exactly those that occur when a drive is not getting the right power.

Annoying that the issue seems to go away when using HWiNFO Sensors! Could really do with running logging on the sensors.

Again, the ejection of an internal hard drive typically occurs when it's not getting enough power.

Report back when you can definitely eliminate the possibility that it's something to do with the hardware, then we can try and work out what configuration/software issue is causing the drop in power.

 

If there is no problems with the hardware then the built-in APM would be my next thing to look at. It may be that previous drivers overrode the drive's APM and whatever you have installed now doesn't.

See if you can override it using: HDDScan – free HDD test utility with USB flash and RAID support

It's safe software. Select the HD155UI, New Task->Features->IDE Features

 

Thanks again Nus, was at work all day long but also stumbled onto that HDDScan software.
First thing I did was disable APM, interestingly enough it was set to 128 (which apparently should not allow spin-down, according to this source).

Lo and behold! The clicking has stopped! At least it hasn't occurred in the past 5 minutes so there we have it, it's the hard drive's APM. Sheesh... I can sleep well tonight now.
As for what disabled/overrode the previous APM setting on the drive, I have absolutely no idea. I would place my money on the chipset driver, or something Intel-esque that I downloaded from the MSI page. Something that doesn't run in barebones safe mode. Don't think I cba to waste more time on it for the time being, already lacking sleep from yesterday...

For the record, I used to have an Asus P8P67 which also had an Intel chipset, no worries whatsoever there - if anything, my main SSD would sometimes not be recognised during normal usage, requiring a power cycle for BIOS to list it again... but never excessive parking. Though both are equally bad. Oh well.

I'm not sure the APM setting through HDDScan is permanent though. Will reboot and see what gives...

Edit: Nope, it's not permanent as I'd feared. Now I either try and find the error with the chipset drivers, or go the easy way and buy me a bigger drive that preferably doesn't click. But first the firmware update.

 

Well, if the setting doesn't stick then what you can do is this:

• In HDDScan choose Build Command Line
• Choose the settings you want
• Save a batch file (.bat)
• In Task Scheduler create a task to run it at startup

To create a task that runs invisibly in the background, at startup, set it up like this:

 

@Hisui, I have this "phenomenon" also, and my D drive is also a Samsung but that may just be a coincidence.

Night...

 

Woops, forgot to post yesterday, been a long day at work just like today... Thankfully it auto-saves drafts, saves me some time. Anyhow -

Thank you Nus for the instructions, however I preferred going down the quietHDD route and running it as a service. Either way the pesky clicks are gone, and I couldn't be happier. Well, I could, if the issue had never popped up in the first place... but whatever.

Someday I shall investigate what caused my drive to be one of just few special snowflakes uncharacteristically imitating WD Green drives, I simply cannot comprehend why such aggressive spindown behaviour would be desirable for any drive. 5 minutes okay, but not 10 seconds... But that's for another time. Until then, issue solved.
(I'll stick around to answer any questions though, and if someday someone comes up with a permanent solution, be my guest.)

Thanks again Nus for bearing with me, especially with what seems to be not a Windows 10 issue. Hindsight is a beautiful thing... *Smile

 

Good work, brother.

At least we got to the root of the problem and thankfully it wasn't 'defective' hardware, or though, I guess that's a matter of opinion, lol.

 

Hi Guys,

I've registered to this forum only for this post because I'm facing the same problem... and the funny thing, also seeing this problem intensively with Clicker Heroes.
One thing I can assure you, it's definitively coming with windows 10.
I've build my system in 2010, first with 2 x 1TB Samsung SATA drives in RAID 1 and Windows 7 with Intel RST drives. Run smoothly.
I bought later on a SSD (Samsung 840) and moved to Windows 8 then 8.1 by installing it on SSD directly. My RAID 1 has still the "active" partition. I didn't reinstalled the Intel RST drivers.
Here again... system was stable as a rock.
For a couple of week, I've updated my Win8.1 to Win10 and noticed this clicking noise.
I was supecting a dying drives, but because of the RAID stuff, it's not that simple to test a physical drive. Was simply waiting that something died, but nothing died.

A friend of mine, with almost the same kind of config, bought a SSD this week and made a clean Win10 install on it.
And he told me the day after that his sata drives are doing also this clicking noise suddenly.

That the day I've started to search and found this thread/forum.

I've installed quietHDD and unfortunately the intel RST drivers, (wanted to see if it was able to say something about my RAID).
After the reboot (due to intel drivers), my Win10 didn't boot up anymore, wasn't restorable and after a couple of hours, I decided to reinstall it *Sad ...
(you'll find threads about those f*ck**g Intel Drivers and Windows 10 as well, DO NOT INSTALL THEM ON WIN10).

All this to say that the APM may be the problem we're facing, but it comes definitively with Windows 10 together, because I didn't changed anything else, my friend either.

With quietHDD running, I'm not always seeing this pikes on HDD Performance view from Task Manager every 30 seconds anymore, but they're still coming from time to time.
Settings used in quietHDD: APM 255, AAM 254. (The default values after starting the tool). I don't know if something else should be set here.
I tried to click on "disable HDD APM now", but got a system freeze (about 10 minute long) a couple of minute later and a nice bluescreen.
I could imagine that quietHDD can't really handle the RAID config.

PS: I played another game installed on one partition of my RAID, Heroes of the Storm, and had recurring massive lags... I moved the game to SSD, and the lags were gone. This game hasn't any issue on the old partition under Windows 8.1.

I will certainly buy new drives, remove my RAID and install all the stuff again... but something is really weird.

Regards.

 

I had this problem two times. First when updated the Win7 to Win10. The 2nd when I updated the Win10 to version 1511.
I have two Samsung 1GB - HD103SJ in Raid 0. (+SSD for Win).

My solution was 2 times:

• Turn off the PC
• unplug and change the two HDD sata connection on the main board to other positions
• restart 2 times and check the click noise under windows
• power off
• unplug and change back the two HDD sata connection to the original position
• power on.... after that I not hear the click noise

I use the Intel Raid 12.9.2.1000 version. (later versions always makes me the click noise)
After windows update uninstall and reinstall needed for Intel Raid driver.
I used this:
Intel Rapid Storage Technology Version 12.9.2.1000 WHQL

Sorry for my bad English. I hope this will help others to solve this problem.