When I zone, EQ spins up my external HDDs.

I have a couple of external HDDs connected to my PC. I have EQ installed on my C drive (internal SSD), and all log folders etc are also on C. As far as I can tell, there is nothing EQ-related on my external drives.

When I step over a zone line, there is a big long pause and I can hear my (sleeping) external drives spin up. Once that is complete (it can take 10 or 15s to spin up the drives) the zoning process starts.

I was just curious as to why it's necessary to spin those drives up when I zone, and if it's possible to prevent that. To make zoning quicker I have disabled the sleep mechanism in my HDDs for now, but I'd much rather have it enabled to use less power and extend their lives (?)

This is a Windows command-queue feature. When the game engine sends a command to the OS that it needs to retrieve files, Windows spins all the known connected drives, which allows the game to access the files on any drive it needs.

Are you on Win7 or Vista?

Is it necessary to have the external drives connected 24/7? If you want to extend the drives' lives and consume less electricity, it's best to power them off and unplug them until they are needed.

This could possibly be of interest: https://www.dell.com/support/articl...-dimension-computer-kb-article-287757?lang=en

And possibly this: https://hetmanrecovery.com/recovery...-in-the-bios-without-reinstalling-windows.htm

Thanks for the reply.

I'm using Win 10 (Home). The sleep setting on the drives is managed via the Western Digital drive utility (for both drives). I haven't noticed this happening with other games/apps.

EQ predates the SATA specification, so that's probably why you're noticing this behavior. I kind of want to see if it happens with one of my games from GOG.

Hmm, the article says that you can't install Windows on an SSD without AHCI enabled anyway.

Yeah I found it using process monitor. Either eqgame.exe or a windows component it's using is doing this each time I zone:

Code:

5:02:33.1525159 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_CREATE    \Device\Harddisk0\DR0    SUCCESS    Desired Access: Generic Read/Write, Disposition: Open, Options: Synchronous IO Non-Alert, Non-Directory File, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, AllocationSize: n/a, OpenResult: Opened    File System   
5:02:33.1525378 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL    \Device\Harddisk0\DR0    FAST IO DISALLOWED    Control: SMART_GET_VERSION    File System   
5:02:33.1525444 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL    \Device\Harddisk0\DR0    SUCCESS    Control: SMART_GET_VERSION    File System   
5:02:33.1527674 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL    \Device\Harddisk0\DR0    FAST IO DISALLOWED    Control: SMART_RCV_DRIVE_DATA    File System   
5:02:33.1527730 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL    \Device\Harddisk0\DR0    SUCCESS    Control: SMART_RCV_DRIVE_DATA    File System   
5:02:33.1529813 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_CLEANUP    \Device\Harddisk0\DR0    SUCCESS        File System   
5:02:33.1529895 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_CLOSE    \Device\Harddisk0\DR0    SUCCESS        File System   
5:02:33.1552164 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_CREATE    \Device\Harddisk1\DR1    SUCCESS    Desired Access: Generic Read/Write, Disposition: Open, Options: Synchronous IO Non-Alert, Non-Directory File, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, AllocationSize: n/a, OpenResult: Opened    File System   
5:02:33.1552386 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL    \Device\Harddisk1\DR1    FAST IO DISALLOWED    Control: SMART_GET_VERSION    File System   
5:02:33.1552452 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL    \Device\Harddisk1\DR1    NOT SUPPORTED    Control: SMART_GET_VERSION    File System   
5:02:33.1552574 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_CLEANUP    \Device\Harddisk1\DR1    SUCCESS        File System   
5:02:33.1552659 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_CLOSE    \Device\Harddisk1\DR1    SUCCESS        File System   
5:02:33.1572442 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_CREATE    \Device\Harddisk2\DR2    SUCCESS    Desired Access: Generic Read/Write, Disposition: Open, Options: Synchronous IO Non-Alert, Non-Directory File, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, AllocationSize: n/a, OpenResult: Opened    File System   
5:02:33.1572687 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL    \Device\Harddisk2\DR2    FAST IO DISALLOWED    Control: SMART_GET_VERSION    File System   
5:02:33.1572752 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL    \Device\Harddisk2\DR2    NOT SUPPORTED    Control: SMART_GET_VERSION    File System   
5:02:33.1572866 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_CLEANUP    \Device\Harddisk2\DR2    SUCCESS        File System   
5:02:33.1572946 PM    eqgame.exe    69288    IRP_MJ_CLOSE    \Device\Harddisk2\DR2    SUCCESS        File System    

I use several WD external drives. But I allow Windows to manage their behavior. I don't use WD's software as I think the OS implementation is garbage. I am on Win10 1803 and my drives are connected via USB 3.0. Mine don't spin up unless I access them.

Sounds like maybe your WD software is to blame.

Same thing happens with one of my internal hard drives that's normally asleep. Zoning pauses the game while waiting for the stupid drive to spin up even though that drive is not used for anything. I finally had to disconnect the drive just to play EQ, which is stupid. Windows 7 here.