How to Prevent Your External Hard Drive from Going to Sleep with NoSleepHD
How to Prevent Your External Hard Drive from Going to Sleep with NoSleepHD
If you have an external hard drive that you use for backup, storage, or media streaming, you may have encountered a problem where it goes to sleep after a period of inactivity. This can cause delays, errors, or interruptions when you try to access your files or use your drive for a specific task.
Fortunately, there is a simple and free solution to this problem: NoSleepHD. NoSleepHD is a lightweight and portable application that prevents your external hard drive from going to sleep by writing a small text file to it every few minutes. This way, your drive stays awake and ready for use at all times.
Why Use NoSleepHD?
NoSleepHD has several advantages over other methods of keeping your external hard drive spinning. For example:
NoSleepHD Keeps Your External HDÂ Spinning
It does not require installation or administrator privileges. You can run it from any folder or USB stick.
It does not consume much CPU or memory resources. It runs in the background and uses less than 1 MB of RAM.
It does not interfere with your power settings. You can still set your computer to go to sleep or hibernate as usual.
It supports multiple drives. You can add as many external hard drives as you want and configure the write interval for each one.
It is customizable and flexible. You can choose the name and location of the text file that is written to your drive, as well as the content of the file.
How to Use NoSleepHD?
Using NoSleepHD is very easy and straightforward. Here are the steps:
Download NoSleepHD from https://nosleephd.codeplex.com/ and unzip it to a folder of your choice.
Run NoSleepHD.exe and click on the Add button to select your external hard drive from the list.
Adjust the write interval for your drive. The default is 15 minutes, but you can change it to any value between 1 and 60 minutes.
Optionally, you can change the name, location, and content of the text file that is written to your drive by clicking on the Settings button.
Click on the Start button to activate NoSleepHD. You will see a green icon in the system tray indicating that NoSleepHD is running.
To stop NoSleepHD, right-click on the icon and select Exit.
Conclusion
NoSleepHD is a handy and effective tool that keeps your external hard drive spinning and prevents it from going to sleep. It is especially useful for backup, storage, or media streaming purposes. It is also free, portable, and easy to use. If you have an external hard drive that you want to keep awake, give NoSleepHD a try and see the difference.
What Causes External Hard Drives to Go to Sleep?
External hard drives are designed to go to sleep after a period of inactivity to save power and reduce wear and tear. This is controlled by the firmware of the drive or the enclosure, as well as the power settings of your computer. However, sometimes this feature can cause more problems than benefits, especially if you use your external hard drive for tasks that require constant or frequent access.
For example, if you use your external hard drive for backup, you may find that your backup software fails or takes longer to complete because your drive goes to sleep in the middle of the process. If you use your external hard drive for storage, you may experience delays or errors when you try to open or copy files from your drive. If you use your external hard drive for media streaming, you may encounter buffering or stuttering issues when you play videos or music from your drive.
What Are the Benefits of Keeping Your External Hard Drive Spinning?
Keeping your external hard drive spinning can have several benefits, depending on how you use your drive. For example:
It can improve the performance and reliability of your backup, storage, or media streaming tasks. You can avoid delays, errors, or interruptions caused by your drive going to sleep.
It can extend the lifespan of your drive. Some experts suggest that frequent start-stop cycles can shorten the life of a hard drive by increasing the mechanical stress on the components.
It can prevent data loss or corruption. Some users have reported that their external hard drives became inaccessible or corrupted after going to sleep repeatedly.
Of course, keeping your external hard drive spinning also has some drawbacks, such as increased power consumption and heat generation. You should weigh the pros and cons of keeping your drive awake and decide what works best for you and your drive. 29c81ba772
https://www.droplow.com.au/group/drop-low-freo-group/discussion/33c6c455-c900-44cb-94c7-6fdbb3bcf0f4
https://www.clsproserv.com/group/plan25-30/discussion/1ebb88f8-9de0-4e74-a44b-11cb0ed947dc