From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Aug 13 09:42:29 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id JAA23929 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Thu, 13 Aug 1998 09:42:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dsinw.com (dsinw.com [207.149.40.5]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id JAA23924 for ; Thu, 13 Aug 1998 09:42:25 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from hamellr@dsinw.com) Received: (from hamellr@localhost) by dsinw.com (8.8.8/8.7.3) id JAA27361; Thu, 13 Aug 1998 09:40:44 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 09:40:44 -0700 (PDT) From: rick hamell To: "Andreas S. Wetzel" cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Program to switch IDE HD into sleep mode ? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > I was recently looking for a program to switch my second Harddisk (IDE) > into sleep mode when booting FreeBSD, but couldnt find such a program. > > Does anybody know if there is such a program available yet, or where > I could find an appropriate documentation which would help me in > writing such a utility? Putting harddrives, or for that matter, ANY computer equipment into sleep mode is a bad idea. First, in the case of harddrives most the wear and tear is during the spin up process, if you go into sleep mode three or four times a day, thats three or four times more wear and tear, therefore decreasing the life of your hard drive. Second, many pieces of hardware do not come back from sleep mode very well, especially under Windows systems, but FreeBSD is prone to it to as it's a hardware problem. Imagine your computer not completly coming backup, and you have to turn it off then back on, and taking the chance of losing something. Third, sleep mode was meant to be a power saving mode. What the manufactures fail to point out to you that a modern PC based computer uses so little electricity that it's not even fuuny. Sleep mode saves almost nothing, except on Laptops where you're running off of a battery. If you're concerned about power usage, turn off a 60 watt light bulb, turn your freezer and fridge down, and only turn the TV on for a couple of hours a day, any one of those will save more power then 'sleep mode.' Rick PS, Sorry everybody, but this is one of my biggest pet peeves! To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message