BleepingComputer.com: Temp system lockup when HD spins up

Hi,

Does anyone know if this is normal, and perhaps what's causing this.
I have an external Westrern Digital USB harddrive, and every time I do something,
or open some "Save As..." window in any application, and the external USB HD has to spin up,
my whole system (keyboard, mouse, programs, everything) locks temporary, which can take up to 8 or 10 seconds.

Are there any first things to check regarding these symptoms please ?

Thank you very much.

I would check Event Viewer, first...for possible errors that may shed light.

How To Use Event Viewer - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic40108.html

Then, I would try running chkdsk /r on the external drive, putting checks in both options (automatically fix, scan for).

Then...I would run the (WD/Seagate) hard drive manufacturer's long test on the diagnostic.

Louis

hamluis, on Dec 17 2009, 03:50 PM, said:

Thanks for response Louis,
No errors or warning whatsoever in Event Viewer,
chkdsk didn't find any errors either, I ran HD Tach on it (long run) and it didn't find anything special either.
In power options I have set HD's to sleep after 2 hours, but I got the idea that doesn't work on USB, sometimes half an hour after previous access, when I want to access it again, the whole spin up + system lock is there again.
I have never installed any kind of drivers for usb or external HD's whatsoever, I'm actually running out of idea's,
I can actaully hear that it takes some time to spin up, but I would never expect this procedure would lock up the whole OS when it does.

Well...that only leaves the hard drive power system/connection and the enclosure cabling/connections, IMO. Or the USB ports/controllers.

I would remove the actual hard drive from the enclosure...and directly attach that to my system and see if the problem persists. I don't expect you to do that, it's just what I would do (because I hate computer mysteries) .

This drive...it has its own power supply/source/connection? A USB connection by itself probably doesn't provide enough power for a hard drive, I don't know but (when I used external drives) I always made sure that the drive had its own power pack.

Louis

Yes, the drive (WD5000AAV) has it's own power supply although there is no on/off switch on it.
I'll try to install an XP virtual machine in virtualbox, and see if the same symptoms appear.