From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Apr 9 02:39:54 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B313616A400 for ; Mon, 9 Apr 2007 02:39:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kline@tao.thought.org) Received: from tao.thought.org (dsl231-043-140.sea1.dsl.speakeasy.net [216.231.43.140]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 146E413C448 for ; Mon, 9 Apr 2007 02:39:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kline@tao.thought.org) Received: from tao.thought.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by tao.thought.org (8.13.8/8.13.1) with ESMTP id l392eP8Z018606; Sun, 8 Apr 2007 19:40:34 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kline@tao.thought.org) Received: (from kline@localhost) by tao.thought.org (8.13.8/8.13.1/Submit) id l392eHQr018605; Sun, 8 Apr 2007 19:40:17 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kline) Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 19:40:06 -0700 From: Gary Kline To: Garrett Cooper Message-ID: <20070409024006.GA18460@thought.org> References: <46192C1B.4060706@u.washington.edu> <20070408221017.23f060ea.breath@unix.net> <20070408230454.GB17305@thought.org> <461976B7.2060808@u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <461976B7.2060808@u.washington.edu> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.2i X-Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986. X-Of_Interest: Observing twenty years of service to the Unix community Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Automatic means for spinning down disks available? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2007 02:39:54 -0000 On Sun, Apr 08, 2007 at 04:11:51PM -0700, Garrett Cooper wrote: > Gary Kline wrote: > >On Sun, Apr 08, 2007 at 10:10:17PM +0400, Yuri Grebenkin wrote: > > > >>Just wonder if it's better for an HDD not to spindown at all. > >>Maybe it's safer to spin in peace than to park/launch? > >>What do you think? > >> > > > > > > My guess (really a SWAG) is that it's bettter to leave things > > just happily spinning, 24*7. In Nov, '99 a power off//on > > destryed my new (105-day-old) 9G SCSI drive. Off ffor fewer > > than five seconds, then a spike or two, and the drive went > > deadder than a decade-old corpse. Lost 10 months of files. > > ((Well, my tape backup had flubbed up.)) > > > > Who would know??? I've heard both sides, and so far, just > > leaving drive spin seems slightly better. > > > > {Futureistic[?] idea: maybe a new drive can have a mode of > > Full-Operation and (slower) Spin. It wouldn't take more than > > a second to transition from the slow-spin to full-op mode. > > Open files, OS states, and whatever could be stored to RAM... . > > > > Any little old winemakers, er, diskmakers out there? > > } > > > Good point. The worst stress points during a disks life are at spin-up > from what I've read. Hm. Yep, that's what happpened with my 9G SCSI .... it just kind of ground or dragged on startup. After 3 tries, it was kuput. > > Also, about the disk spinning at different speeds: many contemporary > disks have "acoustics" levels where you can adjust the speed on demand > (assuming you knew the hardware level instructions to send to the > controllers). Unfortunately I don't know those settings, so I can't say > what is and isn't possible. > > The only upside is at least all disk makers seem to be amalgamating into > either: Fujitsu, Hitachi, Quantum, Seagate, and WD, so figuring out the > standards shouldn't be *too* hard =). Anyway, I like the idea of saving drives and power if a computer isn't active. Else if everything can fit into RAM. ... gary > > -Garrett > > > gary-the-thrifty > > > > > >>>Hello again all, > >>> I was wondering if there was an automatic, and possibly timed means > >>> to > >>>spin down disks available in either ports or the base system, by chance. > >>> Just trying to cut down on energy use, and increase my disks' lives > >>> :). > >>>TIA, > >>>-Garrett > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" -- Gary Kline kline@thought.org www.thought.org Public Service Unix