LOOK FOR THE START MENU SHORTCUTS
A program group called hdparm was created in the Start Menu:
Use these commands to easily configure the Advanced Power Management (APM) settings of your hard disk drive:
The recommended setting for everyday usage is Enable HDD APM (for max performance).
1. Disable HDD APM - completely disables Advanced Power Management
2. Enable HDD APM (for battery life) - saves battery but is likely to trigger frequent parking of drive head, increasing load/unload cycle count in SMART and more harddisk clicking sounds
3. Enable HDD APM (for max performance) - does not completely disable Advanced Power Management but significantly reduces parking of drive head, slows down increase of load/unload cycle count in SMART and minimizes harddisk clicking sounds.
SEE HOW IT WORKS
Configure Advanced Power Management settings in three steps:
If you have changed your mind and want to exit without configuring Advanced Power Management use the window close button in the top right corner [X].
Note that on PCs running Windows Vista, 7 or 8 the User Account Control message window will open shortly after that and you are required to click the YES button.
Note that the hdparm executable is closed immediately after configuring Advanced Power Management - the app will not remain resident in memory. That's why on computer resume from Standby or Hibernation the app must be run again from the Start Menu.
Step THREE - The Advanced Power Management settings have been configured successfully.
Pay attention to the colored area - if an error occurs it is displayed there.
To close the console window press a key or use the window close button [X].
HDPARM SETUP on Windows 7, 8 and Vista ERRORS TROUBLESHOOTING
Hi, thanks for the great utility. I'd just like to clarify how to detect which drive is hda, hdb etc. on Windows7. You start an admin command line, go the hdparm dir and type
ReplyDeletehdparm -i /dev/hda
hdparm -i /dev/hdb
etc.
I have a Kingston SSD on SATA channel 1, DVD-R/W on SATA channel 2 and a Seagate HDD on SATA channel 3. So I would expect the Kingston SSD to be hda and Seagate HDD be either hdb or hdc (I'm far from sure what are the Linux ids for DVDs). But Seagate's SeaTools show the APM status of the HDD is changed when I run hdparm it on hda. Really, running hdparm -i /dev/hda shows the Kingston SSD and hdparm -i /dev/hdb the Seagate HDD.
I wanted to say:
DeleteReally, running hdparm -i /dev/hda shows the Seagate HDD and hdparm -i /dev/hdb the Kingston SSD.
hda usually is the drive on which the OS is installed - e.g. drive c:\
ReplyDeletethe best way to determine which hdd is A, B, etc. is by running "hdparm -i /dev/hda" or "hdparm -i /dev/hdb" as you've done
Very good utiliy indeed. Every time I forgot to launch the script, HDD starts to clicking. Horrible! click, Click, CLICK, CLIIIICKKKK. UGHHHH!!! It would be the best get rid of it permanently. Hitachi's tool doesn't help me about that.
ReplyDeleteIs there a way to get it to automatically close both windows when it runs, instead of me having to press a key each time. I know that may sound stupid, but if I add up all the few seconds of time this takes me, I do believe I'll accomplish about seven months less amazing things with my life by the time I die.
ReplyDeleteYou can edit the .cmd batch scripts where the shortcuts point to. You only have to remove the last line reading "pause"
Deletethis settngs is applied only for hdd, not for ssd, right? because i have ssd which use for OS and programs and hdd for movies.
ReplyDeleteTo automatically close both windows when it runs, without having to hit any key, go to the cmd file that pulls up the command window and edit the script.
ReplyDeleteSo, let's say that your Startup calls
_2nd hdd - disable hdd apm.cmd
Make a backup copy of _2nd hdd - disable hdd apm.cmd just in case
Then, right click _2nd hdd - disable hdd apm.cmd and select Edit or Open With Notepad
Anywhere where you see the word "pause", delete it and then save the cmd file.
That should be all you need to do.
It's OK to delete all PAUSE commands, but then shall remember to click yes on the User Account Control popup message on PC startup.
DeleteNote that error messages are displayed on the cmd screen, so if all PAUSE rows are deleted, this important information will as well be hidden.
Did a good job disabling APM on a machine I was fixing (Dell M5040 with WD3200BPVT-75ZEST0, Win7 64-Bit). With APM on and maximum performance this drive was still making a noise once it was idling, even using this app. So I just used the same app to kill APM upon Windows boot. Works great. Without turning APM off on this machine/drive I guarantee you will go insane after a short while...tick..tick..tick is all you here, like a busted record needle. The wear on the drive heads must be incredible, since they constantly parking. These drives are tough enough to stay on I reckon, so that's what I do and to hell with the power consumption. You can confirm the drive's APM status using something like CrystalDiskInfo; it will have a specific section for it. CrystalDiskInfo was not able to set or disable APM but HDParm did it. Note: I used the above trick to close the windows automatically once it kicks in. Fantastic result.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! I was pretty upset with a WD 2.5 external HDD... I wasn`t able to run dolphin cause all the games were freezing till the disk completely spun up again...
ReplyDeleteCleared the code (all the echos and removed the "pause"entries) and I can say that it's working amazingly well!
Congratulations on the wonderful job!
To all that create that software and make life easier THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteI have a question, possibly a stupid one. When I run this software does it know to select a secondary HDD instead of the primary SSD? My C: drive is a smaller SSD, and I install all my programs on a secondary HDD which is larger. I have noticed stuttering hiccups in some video games (which are installed on the HDD) when the game seems to be loading content. I am assuming the HDD is parking its reader as the game runs mostly in RAM and causing these stutters that last a couple of seconds when it has to suddenly wake the reader up. I tried adjusting power settings in windows, seems to still be happening. So I am wondering if this disablehddapm software is smart enough to be showing me the APM values of the secondary HDD and not the primary SSD.
ReplyDeleteClick on the More shortcuts link fore more disks...
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thanks a lot for this, I've been using it for years, it's been saving me thousands of load cycles that would otherwise kill my drives.
ReplyDeleteNow, recently I built a new PC with Windows 10, set this up the same way as before by creating a task in the Task Scheduler to run hdparm.exe with -B 255 hdb -B 255 hdc parameters (which are correct for my drive setup), but each time I boot the PC, it shows the console screen you've mentioned above asking me to press any key.
In the past I was using Windows 8 and it didn't do that. It managed to quietly launch in the background without me having to press any key. Do you know why it asks now? I'm pretty sure I did everything exactly the same as on Windows 8.
Delete the startup entry in Task Manager, or from the Startup folder
Delete