Windows 10: Is that a built-in function on the HDD or Windows 10?

When My Passport Essential has been left idle for almost 20 minutes, the disk will stop rotating, and it will start rotating again when I read files on it.
Is that a built-in function on the HDD or Windows 10?

:)

 

Is there a webcam with built-in microphone that works with windows 10 yet??

My PC is now 6 months old and I'm up to 31 different webcams with built-in microphones that will not work with Windows 10. I get video but no audio and they all do the same thing whether recording or talking with Skype. I've tried all the fixes and had
the Microsoft techs take control of my PC for 3 hours and they couldn't fix the issue. When you go to the device manager it shows the microphone is enabled but it doesn't pick up anything, so we set the sensitivity to 100 and it begins to pick up sound and
as soon as you close the device manager it stops picking up sound. When you go back to the device manager the input level has reset to zero again, tried many different drivers and the issue still remains. The best answer I got was from a senior software technician
from CNET that told me Windows 10 is the worst operating system as far as peripherals are concerned, every update causes issues but the webcam issue has been there for over a year and no fix and manufacturers aren't updating software because the constant changes
and patches that Microsoft releases are causing conflicts so they aren't doing anything to resolve any hardware issues. So my question is as follows, does anyone know of a webcam with built-in microphone that will work with this garbage operating system? If
not, is there a webcam that I can use with an external microphone that will work? I don't have a lot of money so I'm stuck with this for another 2 years until I can save enough to go with Apple, I loved Microsoft up until this garbage windows 10, so my next
PC is going to be a Mac, at least I know when I buy something that is supposed to work with the system it will without having to spend 10 hours looking for fixes or have techs trying to make something work that they know won't happen because the update is
bad.

 

Is there a webcam with built-in microphone that works with windows 10 yet??

Microsoft techs tried the exact thing you just posted, they were unable to get it to work. I found that I'm not the only one, Dell told me that every single windows 10 PC with the latest build and creators update has this issue. There are no more drivers
to try. The generic drivers will allow about 30 seconds of recording before the sound stops, it seems that when you set the microphone level it works fine until you go to record and then no sound. Go back to the device manager and the microphone levels rest
back to zero on their own, Dell has said it is a known issue with Windows 10 and Microsoft doesn't have a fix. There are some registry fixes for PCs that upgraded to windows 10 but for machines built with 10 from the start the issue can't be fixed so I'm
hoping there is at least a new camera on the market that has resolved the issue or an external microphone that will work.

 

Both of mine do the same, a 750GB and 1TB models. I believe it's simply a power saving feature, not a problem for me as they do not contain an Operating System, don't need the same instant access as the OS.

 

So do I, but is it a feature of Windows 10? I have not installed any drivers/software of the HDD.

 

Could be Windows is set to shut it down for Energy Savings. Check it's properties in Device Manager:





My WD Elements External Drive has it's own power supply so I don't have that issue.

Good luck...

 

'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' is disabled at my end.
I have never changed this setting before, so it must be the default.

 

This has been an OS feature for a long time. But some drives will power down independently of the OS, often with option to change the behavior.

 

Most likely a feature of the drive itself. I have a USB HDD plugged into the USB socket on my router so that it can be shared on the network. That too stops spinning when not in use.

 

You could try setting this:

 

Power Options > Edit Plan Settings > Change advanced power settings:





When enabled, external hard disks will disconnect when idle.

 

Some figures to demonstrate that an external USB HDD is quite capable of powering itself down while not being accessed without any help from a Windows OS. This is the S.M.A.R.T. info for a USB HDD that was plugged into my router (so no Windows system controlling it) 24 hours a day for well over two years. Compare the (09) Power-On Hours with the (DE) Loaded Hours. You will see that for 95% of its life it was in standby. Contrast that with my laptop's HDD, where the Loaded Hours are 82% of the Power-On Hours.





Oh, and the reason I replaced it? Well the Current Pending Sector Count is entirely due to my carelessness. I dropped it while it was spinning and the heads hit the platter with a loud 'ping'. *Sad

 

I had rebooted it for the above to take effect. I plugged in the HDD and left it idle. It stopped spinning after 23 minutes. Does it go to show the following?