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[AlexSind]

Dear JRiver,

I have a playback related problem, and looking for the best way to solve it.
My dedicated music hard drive is set to hybernate after 15 minutes of inactivity. Also, to complicate matters a bit, it appears that some recently accessed files may be cached by either the disk cache itself, or even Windows - either partially or entirely.
I've run into cases when JRiver would start playing music, and then stop for several seconds, due to the disk waking up from sleep (the reason it can start playing immediately is that the beginning of the file is cached).
I increased pre-buffering to 10 seconds, but this does not always help: I still occasionally get interruptions, usually, at the very beginning. However, recently the problem happened to me in the middle of a listening session. I'm guessing that several tracks might have been in the disk/Windows cache, which allowed the disk to go to sleep.
I also tried using the "Play from memory" option, but this only exacerbated the problem, as well as made the root cause apparent: after the very first track that lasted over 15 minutes, JRiver started loading the next track from the hybernating disk, and this caused a several second playback interruption. (It looks like with memory playback, JRiver only loads into memory one track at a time).
I realize that I can disable my hard drive's hybernation, but am afraid this will shorten its lifespan. Also, my observation is that it definitely takes less than 10 seconds to wake up the disk from sleep. This makes me wonder: does JRiver's pre-buffering behave to the spec? Does it really keep 10 seconds worth of music pre-buffered?
Thank you for your help.

[TBurrfootsIre]

I'm not positive, but I don't think buffering works like you think.  That 10 second buffering is only done when you select something to play.  It will buffer 10 seconds of the track before it begins playing it.  JRiver, or any software, doesn't keep a permanent cache of every song in your library as far as I know.  That would require a large amount of RAM, I would think.

As for hibernation, I have mine disabled on my HTPC which runs 24/7.  However I use drives designed for server usage.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong concerning the cache.

[AlexSind]

I'm not positive, but I don't think buffering works like you think.  That 10 second buffering is only done when you select something to play. 

Yes, that is exactly my understanding as well. However, I did expect that since my HD takes less than 10 seconds to wake up, with 10 second pre-buffering, it should never run into a buffer under-flow situation. Somehow, though, this is not the case.

[fitbrit]

Waking up your hard drives from hibernation many times a day is likely to cause them more stress than being awake for several hours at a time. You could try hibernation after 3 hours, for example.

[mwillems]

Waking up your hard drives from hibernation many times a day is likely to cause them more stress than being awake for several hours at a time. You could try hibernation after 3 hours, for example.

+1. Parking the heads constantly is likely to be much harder on the drive than just letting it spin for a few hours at a time. 

[AlexSind]

+1. Parking the heads constantly is likely to be much harder on the drive than just letting it spin for a few hours at a time. 

Points well taken. I've changed hybernation to 90 mins.