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Forum: Old versions

Topic: Does your hard drive go to sleep on you?

This topic is old and might contain outdated or incorrect information.

I bought a toshiba external drive and started having problems with it going to sleep after an unusualy short period of activity and causing my program to hang or crash entirely waiting for the damn thing to wake up on demand. Most of the time it would just shut off entirely.

Anyways, I wanted to share my fix with all of you out there in VDJ land.

I just wrote a simple batch file keep the hard drive active, all it does is make a directory copy itself there, delete itself, then delete the directory again and repeat. That mixed with a few PING commands (used as a pausing method so it doesn,t tie up the drive completely) and it works beautifuly. (As long as remember to turn it on when I load the drive)

Any ways, I worked this out so that it doesn't matter what the drive letter is, just copy the text below, create a text file in the root directory of the drive you want to "KEEP AWAKE" and name it sleep.bat paste the text into it, then run. That's it.

Comments appreciated but please don't criticize, I'm no programmer, just a DJ.

It will open and DOS window but I just minimize it and ignore it.

::START HERE::


@echo off
cd\
if EXIST .\nodoze GOTO DELDIR
echo This SHOULD keep the HD from going to sleep!

:BEGIN
cd .
md \nodoze
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 3 -w 1000 > NUL
copy sleep.bat \nodoze\
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 3 -w 1000 > NUL
cd \nodoze
del . /q
cd \
rd .\nodoze
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 3 -w 1000 > NUL
goto BEGIN

:DELDIR
cd .\nodoze
del . /q
cd \
rd \nodoze
echo This SHOULD keep the HD from going to sleep!
goto BEGIN


::end here::
 
Posted Tue 06 Apr 10 @ 11:13 pm
There should be software supplied with the drive that will have an option to alter the time delay or not allow it to "sleep".

All my external drives have this facility in the software supplied.
 
I also read on here somwhere about going in to the Device Manager and for all USB Root Hubs, right-click select properties, then the Power Management tab and uncheck the "Allow the computer to turn off this devcie to save power" and then apply.

Cheers,

Roy
 
Yeah, tried all that, that's why I'm never buying another Toshiba External, it's a known issue with them that they won't even address. There are no settings anywhere accesible for the drive and power management doesn't give you sleep settings for External drives. It's part of the Drive firmware and the only software that comes with it is the backup utility that comes on the Virtual CD Rom drive that you can't get ride of either.
 
cbgraphix wrote :

I just wrote a simple batch file keep the hard drive active,


1.) I would simply run a directory command rather then delete/create a file..

IE:
DIR F:\NODOZE\*.BAT
CLS

2.) do a google search for a simple timer that you can use in a batch file..
much better then using the "ping" command.

3.) I cant remember, but i think someone already made a simple .exe that keeps your hardrive from spinning down, but doesnt use a lot of cpu cycles.
 
I had a toshiba external and tried everything and it would still go to sleep. Worst drive I ever had. Returned it back to the Best Buy and ordered a Lacie. I'm very happy with it. Will never buy a Toshiba drive again.
 
There is a freebe program out there to do the same thing. I've used it with great success. It's called "My Drive Is Spinning" by SoftJock Audio Software (a vdj competitor!) .


Hey Virtual DJ developers can you build this concept into a future release? Some external drives out there have no facility to disable spindown, such as the newer WD Elements Green External Drives. They stay VERY COOL even with they are running constantly.



http://www.softjock.com/downloads/MDIS.exe





Alan
 
Quote :

2.) do a google search for a simple timer that you can use in a batch file..
much better then using the "ping" command.


LOL, how do you think I found the PING command?

Batch files don't run like BASIC, there is no "pause command"

and I wanted to engage the HD more than jjust a directory command.

I will look into the EXE file. At least with my batch file, I know EXACTLY what it's doing, no mysteries.

LOL

Thanks for the feedback.
 
cbgraphix wrote :

Batch files don't run like BASIC, there is no "pause command"

actually Dos does have a built in Pause command LOL (but no timer)
also its keyboard input for selecting branches is limited so for my batch files I downloaded a .exe program called "GET.EXE" that works great in batch files..

even something like the old dos command choice.com can be used as a timer.

i make batch programs all the time, so I do realize the difference between "basic" and dos commands..

Quote :
and I wanted to engage the HD more than jjust a directory command.

and why is that? The end purpose works the same, but the directory command uses less resources and less wear & tear.
 


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