Yep, definitely not normal for Win8. My drive happily sits in Windows Explorer's Computer view as well as is the left side menu thing even when I have not done anything with it since a boot, no matter how long it has been.
It seems to be actually better in Windows 8 because the drive never spins at all, not even when I go to access it in Windows Explorer.
Only actually running something off of it starts the spinning.
Ya know the deal....check chipset drivers to be updated, see if there is a new firmware for the drive and make sure there are no upper/lower filters in the reg.
Other than that, curse at the chipset maker so they fix it lol.