Author Topic: Hard drive won't sleep anymore  (Read 11851 times)

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Avanti63

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Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« on: April 14, 2004, 02:41:15 PM »
 8)I am new to avast.  I just installed it a few days ago.  I have noticed that my hard drive no longer powers down after the specified time of inactivity.  My monitor still shuts down as normal but the hard drive just keeps on going.  I selected the option in Avast to indicate that I has a dialup connection but this did not solve the problem.  I am running windows ME.  Was working fine before I installed Avast.  Thank you in advance for any help you might provide.

Steele

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Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2004, 05:01:21 PM »
Hello Avanti63  :)

How many hard drives do you have and if more than one, is one shutting down but not the other?

I've found that with Windows9x that my D: drive will shut down as Windows has no use in accessing that drive as all it contains are my music and video files.

The C: drive however is the primary drive where the operating system *usually* resides. Windows Me probably has over a DOZEN simultaneous background processes running all at once which keeps the computer busy needing to access the hard drive from time to time. Windows 2000 and XP can be even WORSE when you want to power down your drive after a a few minutes of inactivity... since these newer operating systems have even MORE silent background proccesses running all at once.

Try INCREASING the length of inactivity to 30 minutes or more. Maybe then it can power down the drives. I find that with Windows 2000/XP... the drives WILL in fact power down... but only to power back up because something that was running in the background NEEDED to access the drive.

It's not worth it...for me anyways.  :(

Are you saying that because you just installed Avast that your PC will no longer power down the drives, but it did before?  :-\

Try opening up the power settings and increase the length of time for hard drive shutdown. Then RE-APPLY your power scheme.

Hope this helps.
~Steele~  ;)
« Last Edit: April 14, 2004, 05:03:20 PM by Steele »

Avanti63

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Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2004, 06:24:19 PM »
Thanks Steele,

To answer your question...I only have a single C drive.  Yes...it was working before...but not now.   I will try resetting the times as you indicated and see what happens.

Thanks again

Steele

  • Guest
Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2004, 06:43:39 PM »
Good luck Avanti63.

Unfortunately.... if the drive does NOT power down, then that indicates a running process or background process keeps resetting the inactivity clock.

You can have 20 minutes of inactivity only to have all that time wasted if another process accesses the hard drive.

Mouse or keyboard activity does not affect the timer.
You could be shifting that mouse around like mad in MSPAINT and the hard drive could still shutdown just as long as you don't click on a tool that hasn't been fully loaded into system memory.

It's hard to say.
I hope Avast isn't the culperit.  :-\

cjtc

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Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2004, 07:16:52 PM »
Could this be something to do with VRDB generation?

If configured to do so, it will kick in when
a) the computer is idle, or
b) when the screensaver is on.

I believe this would be entirely sufficient to stop the HDDs from spinning down.

Try turning automatic generation of the VRDB off and see if that makes a difference.

Steele

  • Guest
Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2004, 07:24:25 PM »
Hey, I forgot about the VRDB.

For a new user... I believe it would be set by defualt to run when the screensaver starts or after a certain amount of inactivity.

Good point...  ;)

You can either disable the VRDB or let it run for the first time.
What you may want to do is force the generation of the VRDB database (updates every 21 days) by right clicking the Avast baloon, go to VRDB... then select generate NOW!

It will then take 3 back to back snapshots/images of your hard drive

This process can take a long time.... maybe 30minutes or more.

After this important step, you should THEN be able to see if your hard disk drive shuts down.

Basically the VRDB (Virus Recovery Database) takes a snapshot of your virus free hard drive. This is a very important step in protecting your system from future infection. If a virus was found on your system in the future and it corrupted an important system file... you would then be able to HEAL/RESTORE that file back to it's original virus free un-corrupted state based on the original snapshot you took. The IMAGE/snapshot of your hard drive allows for this recovery of files.

It's like Windows XP restore feature...  ;)... except... Windows XP's restore feature can encapsulate viruses into the restore files. Sometimes it's better to disable XP's system restore.

Good anology?  ???
Sorry if I sound confusing...  :P

Thanks cjtc .  ;D
« Last Edit: April 14, 2004, 08:43:45 PM by Steele »

Avanti63

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Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2004, 08:47:09 PM »
Thank you all for the comments.

I also thought about disableing VRDB generation but there was a warning against doing so....so I didn't.  From what you say I should be able to disable and run on demand?   How often should I do so?

Also...I don't know what effect it has but I don't us MS restore.  I use GoBack which creates a snapshot of everything.   Could it be that Avast creates enough stuff continually that GoBack is always trying to keep up?   I really do like GoBack.   I have used it often to undo problems or to restore lost or modified files.

Steele

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Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2004, 08:53:52 PM »
Thank you all for the comments.

I also thought about disableing VRDB generation but there was a warning against doing so....so I didn't.  From what you say I should be able to disable and run on demand?   How often should I do so?

Also...I don't know what effect it has but I don't us MS restore.  I use GoBack which creates a snapshot of everything.   Could it be that Avast creates enough stuff continually that GoBack is always trying to keep up?   I really do like GoBack.   I have used it often to undo problems or to restore lost or modified files.

Say for example you use the generate VRDB NOW! option... Avast will not run the VRDB service again for another 21 days from the day you started it. You can run it again sooner or later...it's all up to you.

Roxio GoBack should not interfere with Avast VRDB... I'm not terribly familiar with GoBack but I know it's better than XP's or Me's restore feature.

I think once you just let VRDB run once and completely... you'll be done and your HDD will power down.

If you force VRDB to run now... you will see a new very fast spinning icon appear in the system tray. Once VRDB is done... that new icon will dissapear.

Good luck!
I highly recommend you run that service "on-demand" for the first time. It will get you all set up and protected.  ;D
« Last Edit: April 14, 2004, 08:57:28 PM by Steele »

Avanti63

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Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2004, 09:10:27 PM »
I am very happy to see such an active board here.  I certainly got some good comments back.  I am at work now.  I will try your ideas when I go home.  I am really happy to see all of the fine help that is available here.  I hope  that I may also be of some help to someone else some day.  You all make me feel very happy that I swithched from Norton ($) to Avast.

Thanks again....looking forward to more comments

Steele

  • Guest
Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2004, 09:16:58 PM »
You're very welcome Avanti63!  ;D
I used Norton before...but there updating policy stinks.
It expires too quickly, and I'm not about to go paying for updates THAT often.

Notice how Norton is always at the top of AntiVirus polls when comparing themselves against other companies? It's only because Norton PAYS those sites that are hosting Norton downloads that help them get boosted up there in the polls.

Hopefully more users will post some ideas about your situation.  ;)


Offline Lisandro

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Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #10 on: April 15, 2004, 03:30:05 AM »
Thank you all for the comments.

I also thought about disableing VRDB generation but there was a warning against doing so....so I didn't.  From what you say I should be able to disable and run on demand?   How often should I do so?

Also...I don't know what effect it has but I don't us MS restore.  I use GoBack which creates a snapshot of everything.   Could it be that Avast creates enough stuff continually that GoBack is always trying to keep up?   I really do like GoBack.   I have used it often to undo problems or to restore lost or modified files.

I think not, I use GoBack, avast and Windows XP... No problems with hibernation but sometimes, yes, the HDD does not sleep...  :'(
Like Steele said, I cannot due this to avast! all the time. Windows is not a deterministic scenario for tests  ;D
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Offline igor

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Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #11 on: April 15, 2004, 09:45:32 AM »
Avanti, you can try to open the file <avast>\Data\avast4.ini (e.g. in Notepad) and change the line Database=ODBC to Database=XML. Does it help?

Avanti63

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Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #12 on: April 15, 2004, 02:32:27 PM »
Thanks Egor....I will try that tonight when I am at home.

Last night I tried turning automatic generation of the VRDB off.   I did run it once and I have left it in the OFF condiition.  Wish that would have worked but it did not.  Disc still awake all the time.

I do appreciate the help that has been offered.

Offline Lisandro

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Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #13 on: April 16, 2004, 04:29:53 AM »
Avanti, you can try to open the file <avast>\Data\avast4.ini (e.g. in Notepad) and change the line Database=ODBC to Database=XML. Does it help?

Igor, since some users have problems with the ODBC drivers, why don't you set the option XML as default?
Will we lose something? Will it be worse than the ODBC?
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Offline igor

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Re:Hard drive won't sleep anymore
« Reply #14 on: April 16, 2004, 09:37:36 AM »
I don't know much about it, in fact, but I remember Vlk saying that ODBC makes it possible to store the past sessions in the Professional version - which is not possible with XML. I'm not sure if it has any other implications, especially for Home version.