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Questions tagged [spinup]

29 questions
35
votes
2 answers

Hdparm - Checking if a drive is spun down

Is there anyway to find out if a hard drive has spun down? I've been using the following command to spin it down after idle time: hdparm -S 120 /dev/hdX However I'm not sure it's working correctly and was wondering how to check the current power…
Jason
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30
votes
4 answers

Why is Windows constantly spinning up my secondary HDD?

I'm having a problem with windows constantly spinning up my secondary HDD. My main OS is on the C: partition of my SSD and on my HDD I have a D: partition for storage and an E: partition for recovery. Indexing is disabled for E: and D: and currently…
joelostblom
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13
votes
1 answer

Avoid HDD spinup at boot

Is there any way to avoid specific HDDs from spinning up at boot time? There are 3 HDDs in my HTPC (Ubuntu 12.10) and 1 SSD (boot drive). I don't want the HDDs to spin up when booting to reduce boot time, save energy and expand the HDD's…
NoMad
  • 792
12
votes
1 answer

How long does a hard disk spin after power off?

I frequently use 3.5" hard drives in external "docks", swapping them in and out. The platters are heavy and have great angular momentum and I imagine that if the drive is moved - especially rotated out of the plane - while the hard disks are…
davidbak
  • 637
11
votes
5 answers

SSD cache to minimize HDD spin-up time?

short version first: I'm looking for Linux compatible software which is able to transparently cache HDD writes using an SSD. However, I only want to spin up the HDD once or twice a day (to write the cached data to the HDD). The rest of the time, the…
sirprize
  • 171
9
votes
1 answer

Is the “idle3” timeout mess still relevant on Western Digital WD Blue hard drives from 2022?

Is the “idle3” timeout still relevant for 2022 Western Digital Blue hard drives, and specifically for their WD40EZAZ line? Or should I take hdparm -J reporting an invalid exchange as proof that the timer was removed and that the disks won't park…
Gro-Tsen
  • 231
6
votes
3 answers

Linux - prevent disks spinning up

On bootup all disks are spun up, but 4 are just backup (and pretty noisy too). Soo I'd rather prefer to never ever spin them up at all when booting. Is there a kernel option which tells the kernel which SATA port the disk is attached which contains…
drahnr
  • 380
5
votes
1 answer

How can I prevent Windows from spinning up all drives when I delete something?

When I delete something Windows spin up all sleeping hard drives. Even those totally unaffected by the procedure. Is there a way of preventing this, or it's just a Windows bug? (Using Windows 7 Ultimate - 64 bit - Recycle bin turned on on all…
bortao
  • 1,861
4
votes
2 answers

Hard drive fell; caught in mid-air; won't spin up

I have a SimpleTech 1TB external USB hard drive. I recently backed up my entire system to it, then formatted and installed Windows 8 Developer Preview. Before restoring my data from the external drive, I stepped on the power cord, yanking the drive…
Xuor
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3
votes
0 answers

Why does my harddrive keep spinning down in windows 8.1?

I'm using windows 8.1 with an external hard drive. My external seems to go to sleep very quickly, like in a single minute. I constantly wait 2-3 seconds when accessing files on my external harddrive (where all my important stuff is). I have not had…
B T
  • 801
3
votes
0 answers

Preventing unused spare hdd from spinning up during suspend and shutdown

I recently replaced my sata hdd with an ssd, and keeping the hdd in as a spare. It's not used, not event mounted to filesystem. Yet, when suspending or shutting down the system, it quickly spins up, then down when power goes off. How can i prevent…
altunyurt
  • 131
2
votes
6 answers

Why does iTunes make my DVD drive spin?

I have a weird issue with my new laptop (Asus N76VM). Every time I open iTunes it makes my DVD drive make a spin up noise for a second and then stops. It seems like it checks if there's a CD present or so (but there isn't, it's empty). I would be…
EsTeGe
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2
votes
1 answer

Whenever g Google Chrome is open my HDD spins really fast

I have a Windows 7 64 bit machine freshly installed. When I open the latest version of google chrome, the hard drive is constantly being accessed. I know because it makes a loud annoying noise. The hard drive is a samsung 2Tb HDD. It's fairly new…
Jason
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2
votes
1 answer

How to prevent unmounted, spun down HDDs from spontaneously spinning up in Windows 10?

I spin down and unmount two of my HDDs in Windows 10 x64 to keep them silent. I mount and use them for backups only. Once unmounted they obviously have no longer drive letters assigned. For a reason unknown to me those unmounted, spun down HDDs…
p.h.
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2
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0 answers

Is debugging bad hard-drives possible by intercepting SATA packages?

My question Is there any way of debugging bad (as in no longer recognized) hard-drives? Ideally an open-source tool that can interact with the device to capture/interpret SATA communication and issue error codes such as "platters stuck", "head…
Game Instance
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