Windows Vista Hard Disk very slow in vista!

Well, i just installed Vista Business over my old copy of Win XP. Everything is running great except for one thing.... my storage hard disk.

Basically, Vista is installed on two drives in RAID 0, and they run fine. However, i have a second 400gb SATA disk for storing media etc...

When i try and access data on it (e.g. Music through WMP, files etc...), i can actually hear it spin up (starts with a low sounds and gradually increases pitch). The drive takes about 4-5 secs to spin up, and then when it reaches the highest pitch noise, it springs into life and is fine!

Any idea what is going on here?

EDIT:

I have been watching the HD acitvity light for the last 5 mins and have noticed that it is constantly flickering, indicating some kind of activity!

 

Hello Alex,

See if Indexing is enabled for the drive. Type Indexing into the Start's search area - you'll get the Indexing dialog box. If so, turn it off and see if that makes a difference.

Another possibility is that there is something wrong with the drive itself or the USB controller. Here I'm assuming that is the way the drive in question is connected. You could download the drive's manufacturer's diagnostic tool and run that to eliminate that possibility.

 

You hit the nail on the head! Basically, my disks were turning off as Vista was set to power saving mode. And also, indexing and SuperFetch or whatever was thrashing the disk bad!

Thanks for the suggestion. I think i'm going to grow to like Vista

 

Great Alex thanks for the reply.

Interesting that this was the problem. Indexing used do this for some on XP until SP2 if I remember correctly.