[plug] Powering down hard disks

[Beau Kuiper]

Hi,

Disable virtual memory. (make sure the box has enough ram before doing this)
2.4 kernels will aggressively use virtual memory and prevent the disk from 
spinning down. 2.2 isn't as bad though, but it will still cause unexpected 
spinups.

Beau Kuiper
kuiperba at cs.curtin.edu.au

On Monday 23 July 2001 19:50, Andrew Furey wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I have a gateway machine with a somewhat noisy hard
> disk, and given that it's in an otherwise quiet
> environment, I'd like to power the hard disk down to
> reduce the noise.
>
> I've tried using hdparm to set the spindown time to 5
> minutes or so, but it still accesses the disk every
> 5-10 seconds. As suggested in the Battery-powered
> mini-HOWTO, I've also tried setting flush and sync
> times to 1 hour (would prefer 3-4 hours), but with no
> apparent effect.
>
> Anyone done this before? I'm 95% sure this disk can be
> powered down since I've done it before (in another
> box). The machine is basically idle otherwise (as far
> as reading from the disk goes).
>
> TIA
> Andrew
>
> =====
> In a world without walls and fences, who needs windows and gates?
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________
>__ http://messenger.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Messenger
> - Voice chat, mail alerts, stock quotes and favourite news and lots more!