From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1RC0Yd-0003I3-8T for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:53:07 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E678E21C1A6; Fri, 7 Oct 2011 02:52:55 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-wy0-f181.google.com (mail-wy0-f181.google.com [74.125.82.181]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0DC4921C027 for ; Fri, 7 Oct 2011 02:51:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wyf19 with SMTP id 19so4365819wyf.40 for ; Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:51:59 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:from:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:to:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=Ct+DYxRYWjqXOSlg2YjoVnl3QnpUVyWDeRE1B2zXFqw=; b=HaWu04d+7WYnooMMZ+kY63kTgthrrVnoMcWYsINVe0Qgr1vvVR2+6BXw4b+UYHQDPc tOWeU9wNKjO9XdzucJn5HBuzjLY6UNAv98B4xdSvxELhAW8qNRGVUaabzKP9AaqAExhm HZSi1QUwXYPsl4UNUJeyNpJ3hShRfFVIm/Vqk= Received: by 10.227.23.194 with SMTP id s2mr966739wbb.99.1317955919149; Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:51:59 -0700 (PDT) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: paul.hartman@gmail.com Received: by 10.227.59.193 with HTTP; Thu, 6 Oct 2011 19:51:39 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <4E8DFE1B.6060403@gmail.com> From: Paul Hartman Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2011 21:51:39 -0500 X-Google-Sender-Auth: biWJNnu-UmjnMnEJgTSUn23AtO0 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How can I power disk off? To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: 63ab6b2558b1018ddc9e5ff135533a7a On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 8:29 PM, Grant Edwards w= rote: > On 2011-10-06, Jarry wrote: >> Hi, >> >> In my server I have a few disks which must be running 24/7, >> but I also have a single big hard-drive, which is used only >> for a few minutes every day, just for backups. How could I >> power disk off when not needed (and "on" again when needed) >> in order to save a little power and prolong its life? > > That prompts one to ask the question: =A0Does spinning a drive up/down > every day lengthen or shorten it's life compared to having it on 24/7 > (assuming the same number of seeks in both cases). I think it is generally believed that by NOT spinning down the drive, you are going to shorten its life-span. Any HDD made in the past few years are designed with spin-up/spin-down when idle in mind. Constantly spinning will probably wear it out faster than regularly spinning up and down. It should be able to handle thousands of spin-up/spin-down cycles with ease. I think SMART will tell you how many times it has happened. In my case I disabled it because I found it to be annoying and inappropriate for my RAID, but I realize I'm wasting power and probably jeopardizing the long-term health of my drives by not allowing them to spin-down.