@Pill_Monster :
Thank you for your interesting answer. Your explanation could very well fit the problem I was having. It seemed like the drive(s) went into deep sleep and then suddenly awoke. I’m still on the raid drivers that Windows 10 1809 installs natively, and while I still sometimes hear the head of one of my hd’s clicking, this doesn’t in any way hamper system responsiveness; everything opens instantly, and the infamous task manager freeze has disappeared.
I had an extensive look at the RST drivers readme and couldn’t find anything relevant, but please let me know if you stumble across any interesting piece of info.
As for fw updates, I have seen none available for my hd’s, which btw are two sata6 2Tb’s in a partitioned raid0 array plus one sata6 1Tb. They are Seagates and not WD’s.
@Lurk :
Could you post the serial numbers and p/n numbers? Or take a pic…
Firmware updates for Seagate drives were released by OEM’s recently, to improve lifespan & performance. I’d be happy to upload them…
Yes @Pill_Monster you can use 1024 or 2048 for alignment, unsure what you mean by AFD?
You can disable head parking, or at least limit it, I remember setting this on my WD drives when first purchased. Do you need me to find the tool for you that does this?
If OP’s root partition has 1024 offset which is OS default, changing it to 2048 won’t make a difference. It’s still 4K aligned in both cases.
AFD is an acronym for Advanced Format Disk.
I never said head parking couldn’t be configured, I said a fw update was released to fix the issue. That’s because flashing the firmware is the only way to adjust the unload timer. It can’t be done through Windows.
And I linked to WD flash tool already. Check my previous post. 
PS iirc the head parking problem is on WD Green, marketed as energy saving drives (hence green name and locked down power managment settings). Green aren’t exactly famous for longevity, more the opposite.
Incidently under my desk is a completely toasted WD 10EADS. Born 2010 died 2015 from bad sector cancer… lol
Hi, thought it would be easier to post these.
I hope I’m not breaking any forum rules in doing so.
Yes @Pill_Monster I saw your link tonight as I scrolled down the page to reply, sorry I missed that.
The greens have been good to me, so far, fingers crossed! 
I think I have a few 2TB that are nearly 6 years old, maybe more, on all day every day and used half of that time…