On my primary computer, I’m currently running Windows Vista Ultimate.  This computer has three internal SATA2 hard drives.  I have one 140GB primary drive along with two 500GB secondary drives.

Soon after installing and optimizing Vista, I noticed that when I opened a portable application or file on one of my secondary drives, there seemed to be a delay in Vista of about 10 seconds.  I would notice the pause… then the drive clicked a few times before finally opening the desired file.  I started thinking, what the heck is going on?

After some digging around, I found out that Windows Vista — by default — turns off hard drives that are not in use due to inactivity, in order to conserve energy.  If people rarely access their secondary drives, then it made sense.  However, in my case I’m constantly accessing files on these backup drives when using my main PC.

The solution to this frustrating problem?

Not allowing Vista to turn off these secondary hard drives.

If you are experiencing the same problem or want full efficiency out of your hard drives, follow these simple steps:

• Go to Start> Control Panel> Power Options (you may have to click “classic view” on the left sidebar).
• Select your desired power plan:

• Next click “Change plan settings”
• Select “Change advanced power settings”
• Per the below screen shot, select the “Hard disk” option and change it to “never”:

• Click apply and OK.

That’s it.  This frustrating problem should plague you no more