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Date:      Thu, 22 Oct 1998 18:44:29 +1000 (EST)
From:      Graeme Cross <graeme@babylon.wsc.monash.edu.au>
To:        questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   IDE hard drive spin-down problem
Message-ID:  <Pine.LNX.3.95.981022182405.23592A-100000@babylon.wsc.monash.edu.au>
In-Reply-To: <362FBDC3.6729CEE5@pc.jaring.my>

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I have a system with two IDE drives, where the second drive spins down
after 10 or so minutes of computer idle-time.

It is very annoying because the system will lock up while it waits for the
second drive to spin back up, which can take a couple of seconds.
(There is also the issue of additional wear and tear on the drive as it
spins up and down.)

These are the drives, as shown by dmesg:

  wdc0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7 irq 14 on isa
  wdc0: unit 0 (wd0): <WDC AC21600H>
  wd0: 1549MB (3173184 sectors), 3148 cyls, 16 heads, 63 S/T, 512 B/S
  wdc0: unit 1 (wd1): <WDC AC2540H>
  wd1: 515MB (1056384 sectors), 1048 cyls, 16 heads, 63 S/T, 512 B/S

I also see these messages in /var/log/messages:

  Oct  3 21:17:09 guava /kernel: wd1: interrupt timeout:
  Oct  3 21:17:09 guava /kernel: wd1: status 50<rdy,seekdone> error 1<no_dam>

Which I assume is the kernel complaining that it couldn't read from the
drive, because it was in the process of spinning back up.

I am running FreeBSD 2.2.7.

I have power management at the BIOS level turned off, and the first drive
does not ever spin down.

I also have APM support turned off in /etc/rc.conf.

Is there a way that I can force the drive to not spin down? I suppose I am
looking for a tool like Linux's hdparm? A search of the mailing list
archives didn't yield any solutions.

Thanks in advance,
Graeme

--
Graeme Cross -- Water Studies Centre, Monash University

Random thought #99 (Collect all 237)
The gene pool could use a little chlorine.


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