Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 30

Thread: Spin down external HD

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    1,308

    Spin down external HD

    As many external HD's connected to the router will probably do nothing most of the time it would be nice to be able to spin-down the HD in these periods.

    Because the HD is recognised as a SCSI drive, it would be interesting to include the 'SCSI idle' package to either the firmware or as an external package.

    As of yet I don't have any experience in creating customized firmware using Linux, so I'm asking someone else (I'm not mentioning anyone perticular ;-) ) to do the hard work. I will volunteer to do the nessesary testing

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Russian Federation
    Posts
    8,356
    I think the better way for this is using the power management settings of your drive, say there is a "power booster" the IBM drives. So you can configure it once and it will do all the jobs.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Eindhoven
    Posts
    2,407
    Originally posted by Oleg
    I think the better way for this is using the power management settings of your drive, say there is a "power booster" the IBM drives. So you can configure it once and it will do all the jobs.
    never heard of ?

    can this util be used for other drives too? (e.g. Maxtor)
    or is it intended for 2,5inch IBM drives?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    1,308
    According to the Hitachi homepage, the Power Booster software is intended to be used on the 'travelstar' mobile harddrives only. So, I guess it doesn't support regular 3.5" harddrives.

    While Power Booster isn't likely to work with regualer HD's, the suggestion by Oleg made good sense, so I looked a bit further:
    The 'Feature tool', also from Hitachi, has been reported to work with HD's from other vendors as well. This software provides options to change the APM (Advance Power Management) settings of your HD. I will try to determine if the software works with my Samsung 160Gb HD when I get home from work.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Russian Federation
    Posts
    8,356
    Yes, I've used this with my laptop drive.
    "Feature tool" works with deskstar models also.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    1,308
    By now I've tested my HD with the Hitachi Feature Tool and the result is not good:
    Feature Tool is unable to change any APM settings on my Samsung V80 160Gb HD. This prevents the HD to spin down when idle for long periods (Changing acoustic settings works fine).

    This brings back my question about the SCSI-idle package: Is/would it be possible to implement this package?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    377
    Hmmm, i haven´t tried it yet on my USB HD, but usualy i modify IDE HD Settings with HDparm which can set many drive values, including APM. It should be in some form integrated in busybox.

    From the man page:
    "Set the standby (spindown) timeout for the drive. This value is used by the drive to determine how long to wait (with no disk activity) before turning off the spindle motor to save power."

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    1,308
    Please note: The IDE HD is coupled with the WL-500g using USB. This will make the drive a SCSI drive for the OS running on the WL-500g. I really don't think HDParam is going to work. But hey, what isn't possible has never been done before right?

  9. #9
    The hitachi-tool works. But must be run with the HD on an IDE-bus under MSDOS. All settings are saved in the HD.
    My hitachi (IBM) 40G drive has the problem, that it spins down immidiatly or never. No value in between seems possible. But its a problem of Hitachi.
    An older 20G seems to work correctly.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    1,308
    Right, I'm going to try to verify this with my Samsun 160Gb drive. I'll report later ....

  11. #11
    @ styno,

    if Hitachi-tools don't like your samsung 160GB then try some other tools.
    I think in other threads there tools described, which are not only for one manufacturer. But it realy depends on your drive if it supports these ATA-commands.
    Better take another drive then. But if somebody knows how to do it with Linux, I'd like it too.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    1,308
    Quote Originally Posted by kwr
    Better take another drive then. But if somebody knows how to do it with Linux, I'd like it too.
    Hehe, just throw this drive out of the window right? Have you won the jackpot to be able to afford a new drive just like that?

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Taiwan
    Posts
    20
    Quote Originally Posted by Antiloop
    never heard of ?

    can this util be used for other drives too? (e.g. Maxtor)
    or is it intended for 2,5inch IBM drives?
    To Antiloop,

    I notice you have a 160GB HDD attach to your wl500g with 1.7.5.6CR5.
    Do you have HDD spin down problem? If no, which HDD you have?
    Than I will go to get the same one...

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Eindhoven
    Posts
    2,407
    Quote Originally Posted by chase
    To Antiloop,

    I notice you have a 160GB HDD attached to your wl500g with 1.7.5.6CR5.
    Do you have HDD spin down problem? If no, which HDD you have?
    Than I will go to get the same one...
    correct, i've hooked up the Maxtor 6Y160P0 it's a 160gb IDE model with 8mb of cache.

    i don't know what you exactly mean with spin down problem, e.g. mine doesn't need to spin down because it's so quiet: I can't barely hear it at all (and yes I HATE noise of harddrives)

    My little Asus Collection: Too much to fit inhere, my 2 babies:WL500w 1.9.2.7-10(OLEG) VX2SE Yellow Lamborghini notebook



    WL500g Forum Asus Files OpenDir

    Asusforum.NL -- Asusforum.DE -- Asusforum.RU -- Asusforum.PL -- Asusforum.NET -- Asusforum.EU -- Asusforum.BE -- Asusforum.ES -- Asusforum.INFO

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by WlanMan
    Hmmm, i haven´t tried it yet on my USB HD, but usualy i modify IDE HD Settings with HDparm which can set many drive values, including APM. It should be in some form integrated in busybox.

    From the man page:
    "Set the standby (spindown) timeout for the drive. This value is used by the drive to determine how long to wait (with no disk activity) before turning off the spindle motor to save power."
    I just compiled hdparm and it doesn't support standby for my USB drive
    Some other functions however work, like a reading speed test and information about the drive. Some output:

    [admin@daf2000 harddisk]$ ./hdparm -S0 /dev/discs/disc0/disc

    /dev/discs/disc0/disc:
    setting standby to 0 (off)
    HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(setidle1) failed: Invalid argument

    [admin@daf2000 harddisk]$ ./hdparm -tT /dev/discs/disc0/disc

    /dev/discs/disc0/disc:
    Timing cached reads: 108 MB in 2.03 seconds = 53.20 MB/sec
    Timing buffered disk reads: 4 MB in 4.62 seconds = 886.58 kB/sec

    Just because the other functions of hdparm seem to work, I will post it here. It's tested on a WL500g, release 1.9.2.7-2. But I will also try to compile other programs until I got that harddisk quite.

    Note that this is my first program for the WL500g, so don't trust it
    Attached Files Attached Files

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. [USB] External Storage Cases / External Harddrives
    By Antiloop in forum Reported Compatible Hardware
    Replies: 58
    Last Post: 03-03-2010, 06:18
  2. External USB-harddisk spin-down
    By soepkip in forum Dutch Discussion - Nederlands
    Replies: 21
    Last Post: 30-01-2008, 13:22
  3. Harddisk Spin down (again)
    By Maske5 in forum WL-500g Custom Development
    Replies: 14
    Last Post: 28-09-2006, 22:48
  4. HDD spin down with 1.2.3.4 firmware - how to edit?
    By jpritzkat in forum WL-HDD Q&A
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 01-05-2005, 23:08
  5. Replies: 1
    Last Post: 09-03-2004, 18:16

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •