From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 27 04:36:17 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8DACE1065672 for ; Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:36:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 109BE8FC0A for ; Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:36:16 +0000 (UTC) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id o0R4Jk7h032140; Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:19:46 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) with ESMTP id o0R4JkRP032137; Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:19:46 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:19:46 -0700 (MST) From: Warren Block To: Alexander Best In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (BSF 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII; format=flowed Content-ID: X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.2.3 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:19:46 -0700 (MST) Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Spin down HDD after disk sync or before power off X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:36:18 -0000 On Tue, 26 Jan 2010, Alexander Best wrote: > because of kern/140752 i looked through a discussion back in 2009 > (http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2009-March/027879.html) > concerning freebsd's hdd spin down procedure. right now ATA_FLUSHCACHE is > being used although the hitachi hdd specs referenced in the pr say that this > will not cause proper load/unload and thus an emergency unload will occur > which reduces the life expectancy of hdds dramatically (20.000 shutdowns vs. > 600.000 shutdowns). unfortunately the discussion back then didn't come up with > any sort of decision/patch. > > attached you'll find a very simple patch which issues ATA_STANDBY_IMMEDIATE > instead of ATA_FLUSHCACHE during hdd spin down. > > could somebody with hdd knowledge comment on this? this matter seems quite > important since there may be a chance that the current spin down mechanism in > freebsd damages hdds! Does the shutdown sound different with that patch? On a couple of different notebooks here, unpatched FreeBSD makes a "GLINK!" sound when the drive parks, much louder than other operating systems on the same notebooks. -Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA