Windows 10: Windows Update keeps non-system HDDs awake

I set "Turn off hard disk after" to 20 minutes in Power Options. But my HDDs keep waking up for no apparent reason. So I am tracking down the causes. I applied the registry settings in: https://superuser.com/questions/1228234/windows-storport-spinning-up-offline-drives-every-65-minutes


But HDDs are still waking up for every hour. I monitored them using drivePowerState, and I saw cycles going up by one in an hour on average. I used Process Monitor and traced WMI activity. I found the Windows Update service wuauserv causes HDDs to wake up. Documentation says updates are checked at the default interval of 22 hours but wuauserv runs around every hour especially while the computer is in idle. I digged down the rabbit hole, it was much more complex than I have thought and I realized I can't control how often wuauserv runs. I have no choice but just to disable wuauserv periodically.


Anyway the root cause is that the WMI query from wuauserv process SELECT * FROM Win32_PhysicalMedia WHERE Tag="[SYSTEM DRIVE]" triggers reading SMART information for ALL drives when it is started.

:)

 

HyperSLI (Enabling SLI on non-sli motherboards)

To turn off windows updates in windows 7 follow these steps:

Click the start button, in the search box type in 'windows updates', click on 'windows update'
in the search results list, in the left side of the windows update window click 'change settings'
then in the option bar select 'Never check for updates'.

 

Windows Update keeps failing!

Hi,

I had once a similar issue like yours, i.e. not able to update Windows 7. What I did to solve the problems is:

- go to control panel, then to "Troubleshouting" > "System and Security" > "Fix problems with Windows update" > click "Advanced" > choose "Apply repairs automatically".

And Windows will start detecting the issues and will repair "Windows update components". The problems should be fixed now, close the program, restart the PC, and see if the mentioned steps have fixed the problems you mentioned.

Hope it works for you.

Good luck!

 

unlock hdd

Hi Johan,

It is possible that your
HDD was unreadable
causing the error message to appear. We recommend that you perform these troubleshooting steps and check if there are any changes:

• 
  Shutdown
  your
  PC.
  
• 
  Unhooked
  the
  HDD
  and
  turn on
  your
  PC.
  
• 
  Reconnect
  your
  HDD
  and
  restart
  your
  PC.
  

If the issue persists, we suggest that you contact your
laptop/computer's manufacturer
for further assistance.

Update us on how it goes.

Regards.