Bekijk de volledige versie : How to suspend USB connected HDD?
Hello,
does anyone know if it is possible to power off a 3,5" HDD, which is enclosed in the USB/IDE external enclosure (Welland ME-720) and connected to Asus WL500b via USB connector? Does that "usb mass storage device" provide some suitable power managament interface?
Thanks for any suggestions :-)
My first question would be:
If you have your HD connected through USB to a normal desktop: can you get suspending the HD possible?
My first question would be:
If you have your HD connected through USB to a normal desktop: can you get suspending the HD possible?
Well, I can't :( The drive remains spining even if I turn my PC off. There are no bundled drivers/utils for Win2k/XP, just for Win9x (as this can't natively handle USB mass storage). Simply, the drive behaves just like a flash disk. It can be turned off only by its power switch. Maybe I should start thinking about some switching device using Asus LPT port :o
I asked because I had an external drive which kept me from sleeping when it was connected to the WL500G and operational. The HDD case had no such option as power management. I got myself an USB stick: less storage, but silent!
I had some limited success in turning off WL-HDD's internal Harddisk using Hdparm. Don't know whether external USB can be controlled as well.
I dont know how to do it in linux but its possible to suspend external harddisks on pc (running Win XP).
I've searched for it a long time and i couldnt find any piece of software which could simply suspend my external disks (5 disks...).
Finaly i found a solution by myself: There is a commandline tool from ms called "devcon" for windows. It makes the same things like hardware management but without gui (so you can make .bat or .vbs files). To suspend a harddisk, i just disable the device with this tool. The harddisk spins down and turns of, only the interface is still running. Also it stays down when i reboot the machine. If i want to access the disk, i reenable the device and after a few moments it is available. My disks are firewire, but it works with usb disks also.
And if windows can do it, it should be no problem with linux...
Thank you all for your experiences.
Unfortunately, it seems that my USB-IDE external enclosure doesn't support power management at all. Doesn't matter if I disable or remove the device in windows, disconnect the USB cable, sleep my PC or even turn it off, the drive still remains spinning. It works independently on what it is connected to and it looks like there is no way to suspend it, except from cutting it from the power, of course :o
I intended to use it as a central storage in my home network, therefore the USB stick is not enough for me (I already use one for the web server, swap and so, but samba is another story).
I don't want the drive to run 24/7, as it would be used only seldom. Also it would uselessly consume the power, wear itself off and make noise when I go sleep. As I see it, I will have to turn the drive on and off manually and possibly find out some other solution in the future.
Many thanks anyways!