Storage Solutions Checking HDD Usage In Real Time

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kidrow

kidrow

Herald
Hi all,

Could someone please point me to a good program for checking HDD usage in real time? I have 2 internal HDDs & 1 USB external HDD which is constantly plugged in. I've read that the drives will spin down if there is a period of inactivity (as determined by the options set in the Control Panel). So I want to be able to check on whether that is actually happening so as to save on electricity.

Many thanks.

PS: Is it a bad idea having the external drive permanently plugged in?
 
Ahh, I don't know of any utility, but you can try and use perfmon and monitor the disk r/w's or using the Resource Monitor in Windows 7/8
 
So in the Resource Monitor the "queue length" graph is an indication of whether the disks are spinning? Or is it only to know whether a disk is being accessed and nothing more?
I thought the drive continues to spin until the time set in the control panel is reached. But the resource monitor graph dies down immediately once activity is ceased. (I played a video stored on each individual drive).
 
kidrow said:
So in the Resource Monitor the "queue length" graph is an indication of whether the disks are spinning? Or is it only to know whether a disk is being accessed and nothing more?
I thought the drive continues to spin until the time set in the control panel is reached. But the resource monitor graph dies down immediately once activity is ceased. (I played a video stored on each individual drive).
Click to expand...
"queue length" is the no. of pending i/o requests waiting to be serviced. If a queue length is high, it indicates a busy disk. You are correct the drive continues to spin till there are i/o requests. When the disk no longer receives any service requests for the idle time set in control panel, it will spin down to save power. There is aprogram "hd-idle" in linux which does this and can output verbose messages in the syslog.
 
So is there no Windows utility which will help confirm whether the disks do indeed spin down? I was hoping for something to show rpm/activity or whatever else is an indication of whether the disks at any given time are spinning or not.

Also, is it a bad idea having the external drive permanently plugged in? Or is it the same as an internal drive?

Thanks for your replies guys.
 
There is a way where you can make out whether the hdd has gone in sleep state or not. Just set the disks to spin down after 10mins in power settings. Don't use that disk or its contents during this time. After about 15mins try browsing to that disk in windows explorer. It will pause for a few seconds to startup the disk and you can even hear the disk spinning up.
 
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Checking for HDD usage time to time will hog the processor and put more load on the HDD. I've tried it a LOT of times and finally settled with a win7 gadget called Drives Meter. What @6pack is good, but will increase the HDD on-off cycles which can reduce the life of HDD if done periodically.
 
^Thanks but that didn't help either. It's similar to the in-built "resource monitor" & doesn't really give an indication of whether the drive spins down or not.

I also tried keeping the PC idle beyond the time set & then checking for any lag &/or sounds. Neither has there been any lag nor can I hear any change in the sound. I'm a bit hard of hearing though & it could just be that.

In any case, I've given up trying to find out. Guess I'll just trust that Windows is doing its job.

Thanks everyone. Cheers!
 
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Refer S.M.A.R.T, it has what you're looking for:
Load/Unload Cycle Count
Start/Stop Count
Power Cycle Count
Read their respective definitions and justify what you are looking for.
Best of luck.
 
i think you can do it with HDD sentinel if you have licensed version ... it does showing in one of my systems the real time usage
 
kidrow said:
^Thanks but that didn't help either. It's similar to the in-built "resource monitor" & doesn't really give an indication of whether the drive spins down or not.

I also tried keeping the PC idle beyond the time set & then checking for any lag &/or sounds. Neither has there been any lag nor can I hear any change in the sound. I'm a bit hard of hearing though & it could just be that.

In any case, I've given up trying to find out. Guess I'll just trust that Windows is doing its job.

Thanks everyone. Cheers!
Click to expand...
Even if you can't make out whether the disk is spinning or not by hearing, touching the side of the disk should always work. Even single platter, silent hard disks at least vibrate just a little that can be felt with a finger.
 
aman.pitbull said:
Refer S.M.A.R.T, it has what you're looking for:
Load/Unload Cycle Count
Start/Stop Count
Power Cycle Count.......
Click to expand...
amitkher said:
Even if you can't make out whether the disk is spinning or not by hearing, touching the side of the disk should always work. Even single platter, silent hard disks at least vibrate just a little that can be felt with a finger.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys. Will try these when I have some time on my hands.

Dex@ter said:
i think you can do it with HDD sentinel if you have licensed version ... it does showing in one of my systems the real time usage
Click to expand...

Wanna do it for free, man. Thanks for the suggestion though.
 
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