Z77A-GD65 - Secondary HDD won't spin down when set to AHCI mode

Hi, I have an issue with my secondary WD 1TB Caviar Blue drive which is used for Game installations, movies and music.
For some reason, when the Intel SATA controller is set to AHCI, no matter what's set in the Power Options under "Turn off hard disk after", it never spins down, it doesn't seem to affect it. I have absolutely made sure that no apps or processes are running from it. It only contains Games, Movies and Music.
I have even tried leaving the computer on overnight and accessed the disk on the morning and there is no spin up sound.
My board is an MSI Z77A-GD65, my friend, who has the exact same board and the exact dame drive as me doesn't experience this issue, on his computer, after inactivity, you access the drive and you can hear it spin up.
I moved the HDD to the external Asmedia SATA controller on the board and set it to IDE and it works perfectly.
So now there are several questions:
1. Why won't it spin down when set to AHCI mode?
2. Is it critical for a mechanical HDD to be set to AHCI if it mostly contains music, movies and game installations? Will I lose out on a lot of sped if I set it IDE?
Thanks

Quote from: RemusM on 12-November-13, 22:13:36
The spinners (mechanical HDDs) don't even reach the SATA II bandwidth.
Not even close.
On the other hand, AHCI does not improve the performances on them.
So if you really need AHCI, use a SATA II port and see how it goes.
If that doesn't help, remove any overclocking (load the BIOS default settings) and reinstall the Intel RST driver
(for SATA RAID and AHCI mode):
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z77A-GD65.html#/?div=Driver&os=Win7%2064
Then... why HDD's SATA 3.0 are manufactured?
I'm having a similiar issue. When I try to set ahci on the Asmedia controller (I've got a WD 1TB 3,0 connected to) my system does not boot up. I can only see a black screen.
Just saying that the WD HDD is only for data, music, etc. There isn't any SO running on it.

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Z77A-GD65 - Secondary HDD won't spin down when set to AHCI mode

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