AO D250-1584 - HD Spinning down too fast!

I've recently bought this netbook with Windows 7 installed and replaced it with Windows XP, but i've been noticing that the hard disk is spinning down frequently, in less than 3 minutes, even when plugged on and with the "always on" power scheme. I've used Windows 7 for less than a week but i really don't remember of this happening in the other OS. Is this an OS issue? How can I solve that? I'm afraid this behavior might tear down the disk with time.

Thanks for any help!

 

First off, I'd be running a full disk check (including bad sector test). A Failing drive will spin down by itself at random times when there's a read/write error. On a really faulty drive you can actually hear it.

Check the advanced settings for power management, I'm pretty sure that even under the "Always On" scheme, the drive is still told to power down every now and then.

You may also want to locate and install the diagnostic software released by your drives manufacturer. You can probably find other software to do it, but the diagnostic tools will allow you to run a S.M.A.R.T status scan to see if there's any abnormality in the operation of your drive.

Let me know how you go with that.

 

Well, i've followed your suggestion and downloaded a disk SMART monitoring utility, which revealed that my disk is 100% healthy and has no physical issues. And i've double checked my power scheme config to make sure that the hdd spin down option is set to "never". The only suspects left are the OS, a driver issue or a firmware issue. Keeping in mind that i have the updated drivers downloaded from ASUS, i guess the only thing i can do if the problem persists is to get back to win 7.

Nevertheless, I would like to thank you (@Swarvey)for your help on this matter, and if you or anyone else have any other suggestions, please let me know.

 

To check if it's a driver issue, boot into Safe Mode. Power schemes should be disabled in here, and it should only load basic mode drivers. While in safe mode double check the power management settings to ensure they're what you need (if available) and see if the drive still spins down in there. If the drive still spins down, try updating the latest BIOS.

If that fixes it then yes, it would be a driver issue. If not then read below.

After updating to the latest BIOS, boot the computer up, but immediately enter the BIOS setup page and leave it there. Just sitting on the BIOS settings menu. If the hard drive still spins down here, then it's either a firmware issue in the drive itself, or a power management setting that's inherant in the BIOS or the motherboard itself.

EDIT:
S.M.A.R.T status scans can only be believed one way. If the scan says the drive's okay, then it could be fine, BUT, it could still be knackered. The only information you get from a S.M.A.R.T scan that you can trust is when it says your drive is definately fubar'd. If it says your drive is bad, it's definately bad, if it says your drive is okay, it could still be bad.