Hard Drive Problems?

[Sheepdisease]

Hello, I've just set up a RAID1 configuration using two 750GB Samsung F1 HDD's. Also on the scene is a third 750GB HDD which is currently redundant but will be used to create a backup of the other drives. On top of that I have a third HDD installed (1TB) for backing up everything.

Just to clarify: ALL OF THESE DRIVES ARE NEW

The problem is that I have started to notice my PC freezing up, whilst the hard drives start to seek. This can be whilst playing music, browsing the net, scanning for malware and so on. I accept that it may be because of a combination of all of the above at the same time, but the freeze time is around 4 seconds (surely this shouldn't be happening). When the drives start to spin they also make a noise, which is kind of clicky (as far as I have noticed they only make the clicky noise once).

What does everyone think?

[RecT]

I'd agree that 4 seconds is far too long. Two suggestions I would give are that the RAID software needs tweaking, or that the drives have got an initial safety speed limit. By that, I mean that they wont work at full speed until, say, 72 hours of use - my current drives had such a setup in place.

You also say, 'start to seek'. Are the drives not spinning constantly or do they get spun down when not in use?

RecT

[Sheepdisease]

Hello, I meant that they spin down when they are not in use.

I also created this thread on a different forum and it [seemingly] is to do with the power management settings that were in effect. I changed from power saving to performance and so far I haven't had any problems since.

Thank you for your support.