Block AvastAV from accessing hdd

[avast43]

Hi,
Just installed Avast AV and ever since my storage HDD that is usually idle and spun down has started to wake up every 15 min or so. Very annoying. Can I tell Avast to stop doing that in some way? I've tried to put d:\ as an exception in settings, but to no avail.

Thanks

[DavidR]

Avast doesn't periodically access your drive, as an on-access antivirus, it responds to activity, scanning certain types of files as they become active.  Typically if you send something to the storage drive that file/s would be scanned.

Are you able to be more specific on what is being scanned.
How are you monitoring this activity ?

[avast43]

Yes, thanks, that sounds logic. However, right after installing Avast this started to happen. No other new installs och changes to the system besides uninstalling my previous AV-software. So I'm pretty sure Avast is the culprit here.

I'm very aware of when the drive spins up as it creates a lot of noise in my otherwise silent environment. Does Avast keep access logs of scanned files/drives? Any other suggestions?

Avast doesn't periodically access your drive, as an on-access antivirus, it responds to activity, scanning certain types of files as they become active.  Typically if you send something to the storage drive that file/s would be scanned.

Are you able to be more specific on what is being scanned.
How are you monitoring this activity ?

[SpeedyPC]

Make sure your HDD drivers are fully updated, and make sure you only go directly to the manufacturer's HDD brand website to get the latest drivers.

Make sure to do an image backup, before, you update the drivers.

[DavidR]

Yes, thanks, that sounds logic. However, right after installing Avast this started to happen. No other new installs och changes to the system besides uninstalling my previous AV-software. So I'm pretty sure Avast is the culprit here.

I'm very aware of when the drive spins up as it creates a lot of noise in my otherwise silent environment. Does Avast keep access logs of scanned files/drives? Any other suggestions?

Avast doesn't periodically access your drive, as an on-access antivirus, it responds to activity, scanning certain types of files as they become active.  Typically if you send something to the storage drive that file/s would be scanned.

Are you able to be more specific on what is being scanned.
How are you monitoring this activity ?

Common Log locations that I know of are in two locations - C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast\log and C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast\report.
The latter is the one most likely to have any data from Avast Shields and the FileSystemShield.txt in particular, but again these reports would be activity based.  However these files don't drill down that deep or the file sizes would be very large and and the activity in maintaining them could have an impact.

Is this an external or internal HDD enclosure  ?

The reason I ask is my primary system is the laptop in my system spec under my posts. 
That laptop has two drives, Primary C:\ is SSD and for the most part it is OS related only.  My secondary D:\ Data drive is HDD and I really don't notice this when it is in use.
I have to external SSD drives used only for weekly System drive and Data drive backups.

[avast43]

This is an internal HDD that is set to go to sleep when not in use. As it usually isn't.

I Uninstalled Avast a few days ago, and the problem vanished. So it would seem that it is indeed Avast that for some reason spins up my drive.. Very annoying. Any suggestions?

[DavidR]

This is an internal HDD that is set to go to sleep when not in use. As it usually isn't.

I Uninstalled Avast a few days ago, and the problem vanished. So it would seem that it is indeed Avast that for some reason spins up my drive.. Very annoying. Any suggestions?

Sorry other than what I have mentioned it would be difficult to establish, if any other program would connect to it, that is likely to have Avast monitor the activity.