On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 9:15 AM, Al Bogner <suse-linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Am Montag 15 März 2010 01:02:44 schrieb Tejun Heo: >> Hello, >> >> On 03/15/2010 12:57 AM, Mark Lord wrote: >> > No. The vendor-unique commands appear to download a small firmware >> > packet to the drive, which reprograms it for a longer "IDLE-3" timeout. >> > >> > "IDLE-3" is what WD call this vendor-specific "powersaving" mode, >> > and it is not intended to be adjustable. Except via that little >> > DOS utility hack, and even WD no longer make that available. >> > >> > But I found it by googling for it, and it can change the timeout >> > up to 30 seconds from the default of 8. So I set my WD 1.5TB drive >> > to use 30, and things are now acceptable. >> > >> > Ugh (again)! >> >> I'm currently talking with WD but in general I'm leaning toward simply >> leaving it alone. The manufacturer is actively preventing those >> timesouts from being adjusted and they probably have a pretty good >> rationale for that. If those drives expire before their warrnty, it's >> a matter between the customer and the vendor. I really don't see much >> point in trying to circumvent it. Anyways, I'll let you guys know >> where the conversation w/ WDC leads to. > > WD said to me I can send them the disk, but didn't accept, that this is a > firmware bug. > > Today I got a brandnew WD20EARS (2TB) and it is the same. After about an 1/2 > hr. I had 12 cycles with an _un_formatted disk. > > I cannot accept, that it should be a warranty issue, because this reduces the > lifetime _after_ the warranty and increases the possibility to loose data, at > least for those who don't use a raid. > > I would be happy to have a native linux utility to change this. > I'm not sure if that model supports the advanced power management command or not, but hdparm -B254 should fix it. Sadly, many WD models affected by this don't implement the APM command. -Justin -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ide" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
