Hard Drive spindown thru hdparm

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BobSongs
Posts: 86
Joined: Wed 06 Feb 2008, 19:21

Hard Drive spindown thru hdparm

#1 Post by BobSongs »

While there may be a system-based way to tell Puppy Linux drives to spin down when not needed, my version doesn't supply this.

Manual Method
(Install the latest hdparm)
  • 1. From PupControl: click the Install tab, Add/Remove Programs
    2. Search for and install (if not already installed) the latest hdparm.
    3. From your file browser locate the drive names. The PC I'm using has 3 hard disks: /dev/sda /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc Your PC's drive names will likely differ.
    4. Open your favorite plain-text editor. We'll create the configuration file to tell the PCs drives to spin down:

    Code: Select all

    /dev/sda  <-- ADJUST THIS TO YOUR PC'S SPECIFICATIONS
      {
      spindown_time = 60
      }
    
    Should your PC have more drives, repeat the code for each drive. My PC uses this set up:

    Code: Select all

    /dev/sda
      {
      spindown_time = 60
      }
    
    /dev/sdb
      {
      spindown_time = 60
      }
    
    /dev/sdc
      {
      spindown_time = 60
      }
    
    5. Save this file as hdparm.conf in this folder: /sbin
    6. Restart Puppy to use.
By way of explanation:
"60" as the spindown_time means the drive will do it after five minutes. 60 means "60 groups of 5 seconds". For 10 minutes use "120" instead of "60". "240" would be 20 minutes.

This is the same idea as putting drives to "sleep" under Windows. A drive will spin up again when searching through its files by the file browser.

jlst

#2 Post by jlst »

Very interesting. I'll take it into account

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greengeek
Posts: 5789
Joined: Tue 20 Jul 2010, 09:34
Location: Republic of Novo Zelande

#3 Post by greengeek »


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