I’ve bought a used WD Elements (WDBABV0010BBK-EESN) which spins down every 8-10 seconds if no data is transferred which is annoying and certainly not healthy for the drive. I’ve booted from a dos disk and started wdidile3 1.05 but I’m getting a “idle timer disabled” message (which might be related to the fact that the drive is attached via USB).
So how do I permanently change the spindown feature to 10 minutes or so? I’ve read about CrystalDiskInfo but since it’s a portable drive I can’t be installing it on every PC/mediaplayer to stay resident in memory. Do I really have to open the enclosure, attach it to my mainboard and try wdidle3 from there?
I’m sure you know that but let me remind you that removing the drive from the enclosure will void the warranty on the drive.
the wdidle3 app was designed for internal drives, not sure if it will work on external drives.
It’s a used drive and it’s warranty is up so that’s not the problem. I’m hesitant cause I don’t have any non-scracth pry tools available so I’m not sure 'll be able to open it without leaving visible traces.
Of course it would help if WD would a) use a longer spindown intervall in the first place or b) allow people to change this setting via Data Lifeguard Tools or WDIdle 3 while keeping the drive inside the enclosure.
EDIT: No need for pry tools, credit cards will do the trick. As it turns out, it’s no SATA drive but USB 
So what WD tool can I use to extend that pointless spin down intervall?
WD support informed me that there is a newer version 6 available which in fact did the trick, even from inside Windows. Of course I have no idea why WD would switch from 8 seconds spindown intervall to a whopping 30 minutes rather than sticking with the 10 minutes of pretty much all my Passport drives, but oh well…
