hard drive properties?

[Adambomb337]

My external hard drive randomly turns off sometimes. I can't have it do that when I'm playing live. Does anyone know how to turn it off?

I right clicked on my external hard drive and go to Hardware > properties >policies > it gives me 2 options to "optimize for quick removal" or "optimize for performance."

Should it be on "optimize for performance?"

[Muzik 4 Machines]

quick removal disable disk cache allowing you to hot unplug it, i don't think it has to do with the turning off tho, did you chkdsk it?
maybe the drive is bad or something? check connections inside, maybe something is loose (power, sata cable)

[eduardo_b]

My external hard drive randomly turns off sometimes. I can't have it do that when I'm playing live. Does anyone know how to turn it off?

I right clicked on my external hard drive and go to Hardware > properties >policies > it gives me 2 options to "optimize for quick removal" or "optimize for performance."

Should it be on "optimize for performance?"

It might be having power issues if the drive is connected to a laptop that doesn't supply consistent sufficient power to the USB ports. That's why some external drives have two USB plugs, in case one doesn't provide enough power.

[tomg]

My Seagates do that and AFAIK there is no way to turn off automatic shut down. You can always move the drive to another enclosure that doesn't have auto shut off.

[freddemillio]

Have you checked the power management settings. On XP you can control how the screen acts and you can also control how the hard disks act. You can set 'turn off hard disks' to 'never'. Perhaps this is the area to look at?

[Adambomb337]

I already have my hard drives set to never turn off in my power options. I think this may be built right into the western digital external hard drive. It sounds like a similar problem to tomg's Seagate.

Hopefully I'm wrong and there's a way to keep it from shutting down. It's definitely timed to turn off after not in use.