Spin-down functionality for USB HDD

Mr. Alex · 12-11-2013, 12:44 PM

Hi guys. Got "WDC WD5000LMVW-11VEDS0" as external USB HDD and it spins down after being idle for some time. I tried

Code:

sudo hdparm -S 0 /dev/sdc

but get the error "SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]:..." and so I made some searches. Some sources say

Quote:

Hdparm accepts any device as mass storage that is connected to an (E)IDE, SATA, or SAS interface, including, therefore, DVD drives and SSDs. USB-to-IDE adapters often cause problems because they do not transmit the (complete) ATA or ATAPI commands to the drive.

while man page says some drives can be tweaked that way:

Quote:

hdparm provides a command line interface to various kernel interfaces
supported by the Linux SATA/PATA/SAS "libata" subsystem and the older
IDE driver subsystem. Many newer (2008 and later) USB drive enclosures
now also support "SAT" (SCSI-ATA Command Translation) and therefore may
also work with hdparm. Eg. recent WD "Passport" models and recent
NexStar-3 enclosures. Some options may work correctly only with the
latest kernels.

Apparently mine may not. Or maybe there is a way? I want to turn off powersaving functions of my new USB HDD (why do they even do it? to kill the motor faster?). Can I do it any way on Linux or does it always depend on a drive and some of them are doomed to stop spinning over and over again while connected to constantly working PC?

hal8000b · 12-11-2013, 02:43 PM

Your drive has to support the spindown timer function to work.

Try sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda

to see what features your drive supports. The Capabilities section will
if the drive supports spindown

On my Acer 5734Z laptop the internal hardrive supports spindown:

sudo hdparm -S0 /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
setting standby to 0 (off)

Mr. Alex · 12-12-2013, 09:48 AM

Code:

Commands/features:
	Enabled	Supported:
	   *	SMART feature set
	    	Security Mode feature set
	   *	Power Management feature set
	   *	Write cache
	   *	Look-ahead
	   *	WRITE_BUFFER command
	   *	READ_BUFFER command
	   *	NOP cmd
	   *	DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
	   *	Advanced Power Management feature set
	    	Power-Up In Standby feature set
	   *	SET_FEATURES required to spinup after power up
	   *	48-bit Address feature set
	   *	Device Configuration Overlay feature set
	   *	Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
	   *	FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
	   *	SMART error logging
	   *	SMART self-test
	   *	General Purpose Logging feature set
	   *	64-bit World wide name
	   *	IDLE_IMMEDIATE with UNLOAD
	   *	{READ,WRITE}_DMA_EXT_GPL commands
	   *	Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
	   *	Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
	   *	Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
	   *	Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
	   *	Host-initiated interface power management
	   *	Phy event counters
	   *	Idle-Unload when NCQ is active
	   *	NCQ priority information
	   *	unknown 76[15]
	    	DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
	    	Device-initiated interface power management
	    	Software settings preservation
	   *	SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
	   *	SCT Write Same (AC2)
	   *	SCT Features Control (AC4)
	   *	SCT Data Tables (AC5)
	    	unknown 206[12] (vendor specific)
	    	unknown 206[13] (vendor specific)
	    	unknown 206[14] (vendor specific)

It has "Advanced Power Management feature set" but how do I use it?

Code:

sudo hdparm -S0 /dev/sdc

shows the same error as in the topic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hal8000b

On my Acer 5734Z laptop the internal hardrive supports spindown

Mine is external.