HDD FAQs

Everything about the HDD!

FAQs

Windows Defender Waking Up Hard Drive

Aug 19, 2021

Question: I have an external hard drive that I only use for storage, I almost never write data to it but it can be useful if I want to access some data that I have in it.

When it s possibile I d like for the hard drive to stay in sleep mode, but Windows Defender wakes it up randomly even if I excluded the drive from the settings. I have now totally disabled Windows Defender, but I d like to keep it running if possible. I m using Windows 8.1 Pro installed a week ago.

How can I stop Windows Defender from accessing the drive?

I m attaching a screenshot of the Process Monitor log, it might help.

Log

Answer: You could try to exclude your drive from scanning:

  • Press Windows key in the keyboard ?and open Windows Defender from start . ?

    • 1

  • Go to the “Settings” tab and Click “Exclude files and locations”. Then, click “Browse”.

    • 2

  • Here, at this step, you can use either a file or a folder. Select a file or a folder and click OK.

    • 3

  • If you need, you can add multiple files and/or folders using a semicolon at the end. After selecting a file/folder, click “Add” .

    • 4

  • Finally, you need to save the changes.

    • 5

    Related Post

    FAQs

    What are the Windows A: and B: drives used for?

    Jan 21, 2022
    FAQs

    Why is Google so much faster than a hard-drive search?

    Jan 21, 2022
    FAQs

    Is there still a reason to choose a 10,000 RPM hard drive over an SSD?

    Jan 20, 2022