This problem is easily fixed by
Code:
sudo hdparm -B 255 [location of your drive, usually /dev/sda1]
This will completely disable the feature. What it does (that I've noticed) is puts your drive on standby when idling. By default it does it frequently, which is hard on the drive. Best thing to do is pick a number between 1 and 255. The higher the number, the less it will go into standby from idling, 255 will completely disable it though.