AwakeGuard — Keep External Drives Awake

Overview

External USB hard drives spin down to save power after a period of inactivity. When you then open a file, Explorer freezes for 5–10 seconds while the drive spins back up — an annoyance that repeats every time.

AwakeGuard keeps your chosen external drives from sleeping by gently "poking" them at a set interval with a harmless read, so they are always instantly ready. It is freeware.

AwakeGuard — keep external drives awake — Fig 1: AwakeGuard keeps external drives spinning so there is no wait when you open a file

Download installer (v0.1.0) ZIP (no install)

Both are the same app. The installer adds Start-menu entries and an uninstaller; the ZIP runs directly after extraction.

Features

Zero writessafe for lifespan	Never writes to the disk. Safe for recording and backup drives.
No admin rights	Runs with normal user privileges.
Tiny, no runtime	A single ~190 KB EXE. No .NET or other runtime required.
Smart defaults	Automatically targets external / USB / removable drives (never touches internal SSDs).
Configurable	Choose the poke interval (15 / 30 / 60 / 120 s) and which drives to keep awake.

Requirements

Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit)
No additional runtime (no .NET needed)

Installation

Installer

Double-click the installer (AwakeGuard-0.1.0-setup.exe).
User Account Control (UAC) appears. "Unknown publisher" is shown because the installer is not code-signed; this does not affect operation. Click "Yes" to continue.
If "Windows protected your PC" appears, click "More info" → "Run anyway".
Follow the wizard (default location: C:\Program Files\Allisone\AwakeGuard).
On the final screen, keep "Launch AwakeGuard" checked and click "Finish" to start it.

After installation you can also start it from the Start menu: [Allisone] → [AwakeGuard], where the manual and uninstaller are available too.

ZIP (no install)

Download and extract AwakeGuard_0.1.0.zip.
Double-click AwakeGuard.exe to run it.

How to use

When started, a disk icon appears in the system tray (bottom-right notification area). Right-click the icon to open the menu.

Tray menu

Menu	Action
Running / Paused	Pause or resume (double-clicking the icon also toggles it).
Target drives	Check the drives to keep awake. External / USB / removable drives are pre-selected.
Interval	How often to poke the drives (15 / 30 / 60 / 120 s).
Start with Windows	Turn on to auto-run from the next sign-in.
About / Exit	Version info / quit.

Basic setup

Typically you just check your external drive under "Target drives" and turn on "Start with Windows". Settings are saved automatically and restored next time.

How it works (zero-write)

A normal read is served from the OS memory cache and never reaches the platters, so it cannot keep the drive awake. AwakeGuard creates a single 4 KB marker file .awakeguard.dat (hidden) on each target drive once, then reads it with FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING. That read always reaches the physical disk, resetting its idle timer without writing anything — so it is safe for drive lifespan and for recording / backup drives.

If sleep still happens

Some external drives have a very short built-in (firmware) idle timer. If so, set the "Interval" menu to a shorter value such as 15 seconds.

About the SmartScreen warning

This software is not code-signed yet, so Windows may show "Windows protected your PC" on first run. Click "More info" → "Run anyway" to start it.

Notes

This software is freeware and provided without support. Allisone Inc. is not liable for any damages arising from its use.

Uninstall

Turn off "Start with Windows" and choose "Exit" from the tray menu.
Installer version: remove via Settings > Apps, or Start menu [Allisone] → [Uninstall AwakeGuard]. ZIP version: delete AwakeGuard.exe.
Delete the hidden .awakeguard.dat file at the root of each drive (unchecking a drive removes it automatically).
Delete the settings folder %APPDATA%\AwakeGuard.

Links

AwakeGuard ver 0.1.0