Why is my HDD spinning in standby?

Are you sure it isn't just the fan you are hearing, running until the HDD is cool ?

The HDD is certainly capable of running in standby, because you can do FTP transfers in standby. But typically when connected by FTP there is a few seconds delay when selecting a listing from the HDD (because the box spins up the HDD on demand in this situation).

According to some posts from denktenk, when hdd attached to the receiver, Linux always created swap file on the internal hdd ( /dev/sda1 ) even if set swap to enable for example in the usb unit ( /dev/sdb1 ).
This will prevent hdd unit to go in standby mode.

How would I know if it is the fan or not?

Click to expand...

Take the lid off ? I think this must be one box where the warranty is not invalidated by this action, as the handbook shows how to fit the HDD.

Interesting idea from Lonely Raven, but what is the fix ? Format the HDD ? I can see I have files "sda" and "sda1" thru "sda10" (similar set for sdb) in the /dev/ folder, they are all 0 bytes in size (hard to get my DOS brain around that !).

If you send your settings from the box to pc editor & select options, relook settings, select HDD settings & that allows you access to turn the fan off & other things related to the HDD

Then save your settings & resend to box

You might want to factory reset the box prior to sending your settings back to the box as you could end up with duplicated channels & a slow running box

It should switch the fan off

same problem, standby timer is not working.

Do anybody have a new version or could compile a new versjon of HDPARM and HDDTEMP ?

From: Western Digital Support [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 29. januar 2009 11:36
Subject: Harddrive would not go automatic to standby. [Incident: 090126-000200]

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Subject
Harddrive would not go automatic to standby.

Discussion Thread
Response (Eric N) 01/29/2009 02:36 AM
Dear User,

First the drive is going to hot i would exchange this before you try to set this in to a standby.
The drive reacts on normal SATA commands as this is a standard.
Western Digital technical support only provides jumper configuration (for EIDE hard drive) and physical installation support for hard drives used in systems running the Linux/Unix operating systems. For setup questions beyond physical installation of your Western Digital hard drive, you would have to contact the vendor of your Linux/Unix operating system.

Regards,

Eric Neuvel
Customer () 01/26/2009 02:06 AM
Harddisk is so warm and i want to make it goto standby when not in use.
Found out that pin 3+4 have to be shorted, default standby disabled.
from Answer ID=958 but is this the way to make it go into standby.

Also want to try a new firmware, but can't find the latest firmware.

Manual setting the WD into standby is working:
# echo hello>/hdd/hello.txt
# hdparm -C /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
drive state is: active/idle
# hddtemp -n -q /dev/sda
42 Celsius
# hdparm -y /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
issuing standby command
# sleep 60
# hdparm -C /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
drive state is: standby

When I then access the /hdd it spinning up but never goes to standby.
# hdparm -S 60 /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
setting standby to 60 (5 minutes)
# cat /hdd/hello.txt
# hdparm -C /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
drive state is: active/idle
# sleep 360
# hdparm -C /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
drive state is: active/idle
# hddtemp -n -q /dev/sda
49 Celsius

I wonder what is the device minimun for standby?
"Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, with device specific miniumum"
I know that the parameter is from 1-241 time 5 sec, eg.
60 eq. 60x5=5minuttes and it seems that 5-10sec is ignored
But what IS the minimum standby setting?

Hope that you can help me with this,
the only thing I want is to make it go to standby
after some time before the disk is going hot
eg. over 50-60 Celsius

Overview of the paramenters direct from the disk:
# hdparm -I /dev/sda
ATA device, with non-removable media
powers-up in standby; SET FEATURES subcmd spins-up.
Model Number: WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B0
Serial Number: WD-WMASY0376072
Firmware Revision: 01.03B01
Transport: Serial, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5
Standards:
Supported: 8 7 6 5
Likely used: 8
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
device size with M = 1024*1024: 476940 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 500107 MBytes (500 GB)
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
Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 128
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
* Power-Up In Standby feature set
* SET_FEATURES required to spinup after power up
SET_MAX security extension
* Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
* 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
* Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
* SATA-I signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* SATA-II signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
* Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
* Host-initiated interface power management
* Phy event counters
DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
* Software settings preservation
* SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
* SCT Long Sector Access (AC1)
* SCT LBA Segment Access (AC2)
* SCT Error Recovery Control (AC3)
* SCT Features Control (AC4)
* SCT Data Tables (AC5)
unknown 206[12]
unknown 206[13]
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
not enabled
not locked
not frozen
not expired: security count
supported: enhanced erase
114min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 114min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Checksum: correct

This evening I know a lot more about this than I did this morning, because I found that my HDD continued to spin in standby.

Before I had not seen this problem,so what had changed ?

I had switched off my CubeRevo for two days whilst I experimented with a different PVR. Now the CubeRevo was in use again there was a little less space above my CubeRevo for hot air to escape.

On removing the lid, I discovered that although the HDD was spinning, the fan was NOT. That makes no sense, if the HDD is spinning then the fan should continue to cool it.

Eventually, with the lid removed, the HDD fell silent. I believe that the time it takes the HDD to stop spinning can be shortened by cooling with a "manual fan" (waving the TV listings magazine !).

I can't prove this beyond all doubt (and I leave on vacation tomorrow so I can spend no more time on it at the moment), but my best guess is that somewhere in DGStation's shaky firmware it tries to keep the fan running until the HDD is cool, but in fact the stupid firmware keeps the HDD running (and stops the fan) !

I hope someone else can reproduce what I saw today. But if running with the lid off beware that there are probably hazardous voltages on the upperside of the Power Supply board.

p.s. here are some power consumption figures from my CubeRevo:

Shutdown: 3.4W
Standby (HDD stopped): 26.0W
Standby (HDD spinning): 33.1W

I guess it is best to let it go into shutdown if you can tolerate the time it takes to boot up. In standby nearly everything (except the HDD if you are lucky !) remains powered, certainly the heatsink on the processor remains hot to touch.

I did the same experiment. My HDD WD7500AACS newer gone to sleep if used built in Cuberevo script with command: hdparm -S 60 /dev/sda
When checket HDD status via console by using command hdparm -C /dev/sda , it always return drive state is: active/idle even after 2 hours. Timeshift On\Off does not metter on this status.
Only after issued command: hdparm -y /dev/sda HDD reported that it gone to sleep. But HDD keep on very hot state as well as Power Supply and newer gone to cool state.
Its very starnge because according to specs in sleep or standby mode own Power Dissipation should be less than 0.47 Watts. In my experiment this is not true.
This allow me make a conclusion that HDD still has active status even if linux consol reported the opposite.
P.S.
According to WD specification WD SATA HDD's does not used options PM2 Mode(To designate the drive as power-up in standby enabled. This mode enables controlled spinup via spin-up ATA command) with short pins 3-4, but I am afraid that this is depends to HDD models. Need to check it.