HDD spins down automatically?

[AmiKit]

The brand new ATA harddisk (Seagate Barracuda ST3300620A) keeps spinning down automatically after approx. 5 minutes of inactivity. It spins up again when needed, though. I tried to unplug the data cable so the only cable plugged in was the power cable and it spins down anyway.

Have you ever experienced similar behavior with your HDD? Is the drive faulty or is it a "feature" ?

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Piru]

I've got 6 Seagate Barracudas:

ST3120026A
ST3200822A
ST3400832A x 2
ST3250820AS
ST3320620AS

None of them spin down automatically.

[Lonewolf10]

I don't know about Seagate HDD's, but my Hitachi HDD used to do that. It is a modern one designed for use in a laptop, so I believe that it was designed to spin down after a certain length of activity.

Regards,
Lonewolf10

[jmbattle]

Jan, it may be a feature that can be enabled/disabled in the firmware.  Check the Seagate website for any suitable software.  Failing that, try the other harddrive manufacturers - I believe Hitachi/Fujitsu/Western Digital etc. have low-level hardware programs with universally settable options.

Cheers,
James
x

[AmiKit]

@all

Thanks!

@Piru
It seems your ST3320620AS is just the SerialATA version of my ST3300620A.  Interesting. Then I see no reason why my HDD spins down while your doesn't. Have you ever updated the firmware of your HDDs? Firmware of my HDD is 3.AFE. The SeaTools for Windows reports that "Mandatory Power Management" of my HDD is enabled. But I have no idea what does that mean or how to change it. The SeaTools doesn't allow me to do that.

[Piru]

@AmiKit

Have you ever updated the firmware of your HDDs?

No.

Firmware of my HDD is 3.AFE

My ST3320620AS has 3.AAK

The SeaTools for Windows reports that "Mandatory Power Management" of my HDD is enabled.

Same here, so this isn't it.

Are you absolutely sure the drive actually spins down? Maybe you mistake some of the head movement sound for parking? The Seagate drives are really quiet these days, and it's quite hard to spot if the drive is really spinning or not.

Also, in an attempt to avoid heating up the R/W head (or the platter below, I can't remember which exactly) the Seagate drives periodically seek the R/W head around the disc, even when idle. This creates audible "clonking" noises from the drive. Perhaps you're mistaking these for parking?

[Chain]

What about APM? Piru´s hhd report it as "not supported"

[Hodgkinson]

Hi there,
Sorry to change the subject, but i've been wondering about HDD spin-down too. I have a summat-or-other 2GB IDE IBM laptop drive in my A1200 and it too spins down, or seems to, after about 2 hours, and im wondering if there might be a way to shorten the spin-down time.

Hey, I seem to remember seeing a tool in IDEFix that might of had somthing to do with parking HDD heads or making drives safe to handle. I wonder if anyone can confirm that there is such a tool?

Hodgkinson.

[Castellen]

@Hodgkinson:
There are plenty of programs on Aminet to do this.  The one I use is Sleeper 2.0 which is nicely configurable by icon tooltypes.
It starts separate "sleep" timers on the device IDs you select.  The timer is reset every time that device ID is accessed.
 

@Piru:
The regular head seeking is probably thermal recalibration, which the drive automatically does.  The purpose is that as the temperature of the platters changes, the metal expands or contracts slightly, therefore causing tracks on the disk to become further apart or closer together.  The drive recalibrates itself regularly so that it knows the distance between tracks exactly.


As for drives automatically spinning down, personally I've never seen one do it by itself, though I'm not surprised if it's been an automatic power saving feature added into the firmware of newer drives.  Reading through manufacturer's docs as suggested is probably the best way to find out for sure.

[AmiKit]

The Advanced Power Management is not supported by my HDD either.

@Piru

Are you absolutely sure the drive actually spins down?

Yes, the HDD really spins down. I cannot feel any vibration. If I want to access it again I hear the spin-up sound and it takes about 6 seconds till the HDD is ready to R/W.

If the data cable is not plugged in, the HDD spins down automatically on both computers after approx. 5 minutes. However if both cables (power+data) are plugged in, it does NOT spin-down when connected to PC/XP while it still does on A1...
:-?

Piru, could you please unplug the data cable of your ST3320620AS to see whether it spins down after some time? Thanks.

[Zac67]

If the data cable is not plugged in, the HDD spins down automatically on both computers after approx. 5 minutes. However if both cables (power+data) are plugged in, it does NOT spin-down when connected to PC/XP while it still does on A1...
:-?

It doesn't seem to be a HDD feature after all - have you checked all options on your A1? Maybe there's a BIOS/EFI feature causing this?

[AmiKit]

@Zac67

I don't think so because my other HDD (Maxtor) works fine.

[meega]

(two cents)

The 780MB Hitachi 2.5" drive in my A1200 spins down after about 45 minutes, if there are no disk accesses. The original 80MB JVC never did.

[Piru]

@AmiKit

could you please unplug the data cable of your ST3320620AS to see whether it spins down after some time?

Doh, I was awayish for a while and didn't remember this thread until now.

It doesn't spin down.

[starf81]

I've got the same behaviour with my ST325062 4A (ATA 250GB).
It happens both with Amiga and Mac... so I think it is a firmware setting. Let me know if you find a way to solve...