# Windows 8 issue with hard drive



## Derek12 (Jun 21, 2009)

*Why does my Windows 8 keep shutting my hard drive down??????????*

I have Windows 8 on my netbook (Samsung N140P, using generic drivers except video, sound, and ethernet) All fine except this issue and the brightness control.


While on Battery, the Hard drive stops spinning randomly even when I have it set on 10 min or higher on Balanced. It spins down and up and down all the time :angry::angry:.

Sometimes I it freezes while the HD is shut down, the HD light is on, and after it recovers I get a event saying "The IO operation at logical block address <varying numbers> for Disk 0 was retried" and "Reset to device\Device\RaidPort0 was issued"

The HD is fine, this doesn't happen on Ubuntu and this only happens on battery not while AC does anyone know what to do?

Thanks


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

Did you perform an in-place upgrade of Windows 8 over your original Windows 7 installation?

If so, some of the Samsung display management & power management utilities might have migrated over from the earlier installation to your current Windows 8 installation, and might not be completely compatible. I didn't see any utilities updates listed for your model that have been updated since 2010, but then I was looking at the US site, and if you are located in Europe, there might be a newer update on their UK site.

The two utilities that might be impacting your situation are "Easy Battery Manager" and "Easy Display Manager". They came in 32-bit versions in late 2009 for the 32-bit versions of Windows 7. 

If you did the in-place upgrade, have a look in Control Panel's "Programs & Features", and try uninstalling the Samsung Display & Power Management apps. Then use the Windows 8 built-in Display & Power Options applets in Control Panel to manage things.

In Control Panel's *Power Options*, make sure to visit the Advanced Settings, as many options are not obvious (or visible) from the simplified initial screen. To see the Advanced settings, *select your Power plan*, select *Change plan settings*, now make a note of your current settings, then select *Change advanced power settings*. A new window will open: select the blue-highlighted link *Change settings that are currently unavailable*. Now visit the category *Hard drive*: you'll notice that the default power down is 10 minutes for *battery*, and 20 minutes for "*plugged in*". Change the length of time to your wishes, then select *Apply*, then* OK* to exit the screen. 

That should do it.

Best of luck
. . . Gary


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## Derek12 (Jun 21, 2009)

Hi Old Gray Gary many thanks 

It's a clean install. 

I am not using any Samsung driver or software except Easy Display MAnager for the Fn keys as everything but these and brightness control worked OOTB. The Fn keys work fine but brightness control no (stuck at max).

I've set the hard drive power down to 10 min or 20 and tried all power plans both on battery or plugged it but no avail

The HD spins down and up constantly and randomly but seems that is more on idle, I think that the HD will be ruined with all this power cycling besides it often freezes for a while until the HD turns on again and getting disk Event errors, but on Linux it's fine and SMART data is OK.

Very strange.


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## Derek12 (Jun 21, 2009)

Here is the moment where the HD was shut, its light on,the browser did freeze but not the entire system this time, captured by the task manager between the red bars.... 100% active time but 0 transfer.


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

I looked over at Western Digital, just to see if there might be a firmware update for the drive, but didn't see any. You could check the installed hard disk drivers, to see if there are any settings (I believe the Intel drivers have a fair amount of optional settings that can be altered). If the controller drivers are older than 2010, you can try installing newer.

Since the drive is probably three or four years old by now, you might run the Western Digital DataLifeGuard diagnostics, just to rule out any trouble with the drive. 

I'll assume that most of the disk errors in Event Viewer are the "retries" variety. Which makes sense, since the drive is spinning down, and Windows is generally impatient.

Just to make sure, drill down into the advanced settings in the Power Options hard disk category, and try adjusting it once more, followed by a complete shutdown & restart. 

You might also look in the netbook's Bios, just to see if there are any power management features enabled in there that could affect things.

I'll check back later on.
. . . Gary


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## Derek12 (Jun 21, 2009)

Many thanks again Gary :smile:

The WD diagnostic utility came clean but I couldn't take the extended test as it says I could lose my data! so I took the normal one.

Unfortunately my BIOS doesn't have many options, the only barely related is "*Sata Controller Mode Option*" - *compatible or enhanced*. Currently is on *enhanced*, setting it on *compatible *makes Windows BSOD at boot "INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE" :sad:

I will try to "tinker" the advanced power options following by a couple Windows updates and maybe the Intel drivers I saw and report if the problem gets fixed :smile:


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

I know the Western Digital DataLifeGuard warning for the Extended test sounds severe, but I've been using different versions of it for over 20 years, and never had a problem. Just make sure to run the Extended test, and not the Zero Write Erase! (also called a Low-Level Format ... that truly does erase all data on the drive).

I'll have another look later tonight over on Western Digital's site... and see if they have any news for Windows 8 issues.
. . . Gary


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## Derek12 (Jun 21, 2009)

OldGrayGary said:


> I know the Western Digital DataLifeGuard warning for the Extended test sounds severe, but I've been using different versions of it for over 20 years, and never had a problem. Just make sure to run the Extended test, and not the Zero Write Erase! (also called a Low-Level Format ... that truly does erase all data on the drive).
> 
> I'll have another look later tonight over on Western Digital's site... and see if they have any news for Windows 8 issues.
> . . . Gary



Many thanks again 

Took the extended test fine, even when the HD stopped several times during it (the sector counter stopped and resumed). I will try to find a updated SATA driver.


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## mr.pezhman (Mar 18, 2013)

I've this problem so, and continue


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## Tomshawk (Jan 23, 2013)

mr.pezhman said:


> I've this problem so, and continue


The problem may be the same and may be totally different.

You should create your own thread posting as much detail as possible.
Errors in logs if any, snapshots, system specs, Make and Model. ETC


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