Windows 7 Taskforce

System stalls for a few minutes when a hard drive powers-up

Submitted by hi_i_am_wade on May 4, 2009 to Annoyance, Bug, Usability

Problem: The default power scheme has the hard drive powering down after a certain amount of time of inactivity. If you wish to access a hard drive that powers down, the whole system may stall for about 2 to 3 minutes. Anything that requires the use of RAM and not hard drive access works fine. You can switch to any application during this period, provided the application memory has not been sent to the page file. Also Windows 7 caches some directory contents, specifically recently accessed ones. The cache works fine. The stall occurs only when the powered down hard drive is accessed again.

This problem may be a driver issue. The hard drive controller that the hard drives are using is JMicron JMB322. This is on a Gigabyte motherboard and on Gigabyte's website it is called GBB36X. This is 64-bit Windows 7. More testing needs to be done to see if it is a driver or Windows 7.

Solution: The workaround is to prohibit the hard drives from powering down. The system is already using the latest drivers.

Severity: Medium

Impact: Medium

Status: Not fixed