[WORKAROUND] Cannot change hdd spindown timeout

kokoko3k · 2014-05-25 13:10:05

Hi folks, my hd goes in standby mode after 60 secs. and nothing i've tried can change it.

I tried:

#hdparm -B 1 -S 120 /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
 setting Advanced Power Management level to 0x01 (1)
 setting standby to 120 (10 minutes)
 APM_level

and

# udisks --set-spindown /dev/sda --spindown-timeout 10 
Set spindown on /org/freedesktop/UDisks/devices/sda to 10 seconds. Press Ctrl+C to exit.

hard drive info:

# hdparm -I /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

ATA device, with non-removable media
        Model Number:       WDC WD5000LPVX-22V0TT0                  
        Serial Number:      WD-WXU1E83NWZL8
        Firmware Revision:  01.01A01
        Transport:          Serial, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6, SATA Rev 3.0
Standards:
        Supported: 9 8 7 6 5 
        Likely used: 9
Configuration:
        Logical         max     current
        cylinders       16383   16383
        heads           16      16
        sectors/track   63      63
        --
        CHS current addressable sectors:   16514064
        LBA    user addressable sectors:  268435455
        LBA48  user addressable sectors:  976773168
        Logical  Sector size:                   512 bytes
        Physical Sector size:                  4096 bytes
        Logical Sector-0 offset:                  0 bytes
        device size with M = 1024*1024:      476940 MBytes
        device size with M = 1000*1000:      500107 MBytes (500 GB)
        cache/buffer size  = 8192 KBytes
        Nominal Media Rotation Rate: 5400
Capabilities:
        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
        Queue depth: 32
        Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, with device specific minimum
        R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 0
        Advanced power management level: 1
        DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6 
             Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
        PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 
             Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
        Enabled Supported:
           *    SMART feature set
                Security Mode feature set
           *    Power Management feature set
           *    Write cache
           *    Look-ahead
           *    Host Protected Area feature set
           *    WRITE_BUFFER command
           *    READ_BUFFER command
           *    NOP cmd
           *    DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
           *    Advanced Power Management feature set
                Power-Up In Standby feature set
           *    SET_FEATURES required to spinup after power up
                SET_MAX security extension
           *    48-bit Address feature set
           *    Device Configuration Overlay feature set
           *    Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
           *    FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
           *    SMART error logging
           *    SMART self-test
           *    General Purpose Logging feature set
           *    64-bit World wide name
           *    IDLE_IMMEDIATE with UNLOAD
           *    {READ,WRITE}_DMA_EXT_GPL commands
           *    Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
           *    Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
           *    Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
           *    Gen3 signaling speed (6.0Gb/s)
           *    Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
           *    Host-initiated interface power management
           *    Phy event counters
           *    Idle-Unload when NCQ is active
           *    NCQ priority information
           *    unknown 76[13]
           *    unknown 76[14]
           *    unknown 76[15]
           *    DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
           *    Device-initiated interface power management
           *    Software settings preservation
           *    SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
           *    SCT Write Same (AC2)
           *    SCT Features Control (AC4)
           *    SCT Data Tables (AC5)
                unknown 206[12] (vendor specific)
                unknown 206[13] (vendor specific)
                unknown 206[14] (vendor specific)
Security: 
        Master password revision code = 65534
                supported
        not     enabled
        not     locked
                frozen
        not     expired: security count
                supported: enhanced erase
        98min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 98min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 50014ee659a29a8c
        NAA             : 5
        IEEE OUI        : 0014ee
        Unique ID       : 659a29a8c
Checksum: correct

issuing

hdparm -y /dev/sda

Puts the drive in standby correctly.

I think 60seconds are way low for drive health (maybe i'm wrong?), but it is definitely not nice to issuing commands and have to wait for them to complete due to the drive spinning up again and again, even if the laptop is on AC.

...any suggestions?

thanks

-EDIT
setting -B 255 through hdparm prevents the drive to go in standby at all. (-B 128 is not enough...)

Last edited by kokoko3k (2014-05-26 10:33:17)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2014-05-25 13:19:00

Maybe have a look at TLP; it has options for HDD spin down

ooo · 2014-05-25 13:21:43

I think that the APM level (hdparm -B) defines the spindown timeout, and the spindown flag (-S) is omitted unless you disable APM completely with hdparm -B 255
Increasing APM level should increase the spindown timeout as well.

kokoko3k · 2014-05-25 13:30:03

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Maybe have a look at TLP; it has options for HDD spin down

Thanks, Just tried, fails as well

kokoko3k · 2014-05-25 13:33:30

ooo wrote:

I think that the APM level (hdparm -B) defines the spindown timeout, and the spindown flag (-S) is omitted unless you disable APM completely with hdparm -B 255
Increasing APM level should increase the spindown timeout as well.

Thanks, but even hdparm -B 120 puts the drive to sleep after 60secs.

emeres · 2014-05-25 16:30:03

Some manufacturers make diagnostic, [low level] formatting and tuning tools available for their hdds. I never used Western Digital, so I do not know if they have any or if there are some other tools compatible with them. You might want to search for that. There may be hardware specific options that are not accessible from OS level or to any other software.

kokoko3k · 2014-05-25 18:14:58

Well, at least i can disable the spindown timeout and manually stop it as i wish, so i can try to use a userspace tool like hd-idle...
I'll continue to search for specific wd drives tools as well.

thanks.

-EDIT
I tried idle3-tools which is supposed to disable "the infamous" idle3 timer on some WD disks, but without any effect.
So i ended up in disabling completely the standby feature by issuing "hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda" on every boot and installed hd-idle from aur that trigger the standby command by watching (i guess) /proc/diskstats.

Last edited by kokoko3k (2014-05-26 10:32:42)

Arch Linux

#1 2014-05-25 13:10:05

[WORKAROUND] Cannot change hdd spindown timeout

#2 2014-05-25 13:19:00

Re: [WORKAROUND] Cannot change hdd spindown timeout

#3 2014-05-25 13:21:43

Re: [WORKAROUND] Cannot change hdd spindown timeout

#4 2014-05-25 13:30:03

Re: [WORKAROUND] Cannot change hdd spindown timeout

#5 2014-05-25 13:33:30

Re: [WORKAROUND] Cannot change hdd spindown timeout

#6 2014-05-25 16:30:03

Re: [WORKAROUND] Cannot change hdd spindown timeout

#7 2014-05-25 18:14:58

Re: [WORKAROUND] Cannot change hdd spindown timeout

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