Hard Drive Spindown
To reduce the noise generated by my NAS device (a LinkStation hacked to run Debian) I'm using hdparm -S 120 (spindown after 10 minutes). This seems to work, but now I'm getting this when (I think) it spins back up:
Jan 31 10:29:22 localhost kernel: hda: drive_cmd: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Jan 31 10:29:22 localhost kernel: hda: drive_cmd: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
Anybody know why this is, and if I can stop it? I'd ignore it but smartd mails me every time it happens...
Posted by Isak at Tue Jan 31 16:39:56 2006:
While not a solution to your specific problem, I found out that using "hdparm -M <value>" on the disc greatly reduced the noice it made.
It's experimental though, so beware :-)
Posted by Christian at Tue Jan 31 18:09:44 2006:
It's experimental though, so beware :-)
Does it repeat in your logs? It could just be that the ide operation is timing out during spinup.
However, I've also seen this before on drives that are about to die (nastily once).
Posted by Aaron Bockover at Tue Jan 31 18:36:37 2006:
However, I've also seen this before on drives that are about to die (nastily once).
Seeing that log entry made me shiver. I too have seen this a lot on drives that are about to fail. What does dmesg say? Do you get a lot of them?
I associate "DriveReady SeekComplete Error" and "DriveStatusError" with failure. It's happened maybe 6 times to various IDE hard drives of decent age. Then again, it may just be some kind of error due to the spin up and is harmless.
Posted by Ross at Tue Jan 31 18:55:51 2006:
I associate "DriveReady SeekComplete Error" and "DriveStatusError" with failure. It's happened maybe 6 times to various IDE hard drives of decent age. Then again, it may just be some kind of error due to the spin up and is harmless.
I'm glad to see that everyone thinks exactly what I think...
If anyone can read a SMART log without getting confused, then I can paste one of those.
Posted by Stephen Roller at Tue Jan 31 19:47:17 2006:
If anyone can read a SMART log without getting confused, then I can paste one of those.
I've seen that error for various reasons. Sometimes it means a harddrive is dying. Other times it means a power supply is giving faulty voltage.
Seriously, good luck with that. Start backing up immediately.
Posted by Rudd-O at Tue Jan 31 21:35:00 2006:
Seriously, good luck with that. Start backing up immediately.
Here's the solution to your problem:
http://rudd-o.com/archives/2006/01/31/how-to-avoid-errors-with-smartd-when-hard-disks-spun-down/
Posted by Rudd-O at Tue Jan 31 21:38:25 2006:
http://rudd-o.com/archives/2006/01/31/how-to-avoid-errors-with-smartd-when-hard-disks-spun-down/
eight! cool way to prevent spam...
if my latest comment helped you solve the smartd problem, would you make me a favor? please post the link in this article's body (maybe as an update) so people will have an easier time finding the answer.
Posted by Admar at Tue Jan 31 23:40:00 2006:
if my latest comment helped you solve the smartd problem, would you make me a favor? please post the link in this article's body (maybe as an update) so people will have an easier time finding the answer.
I've seen this error a couple of times with IDE drives, and in those cases, the disks were dying. I've also seen it in a laptop cdrom drive when it was spinning up; that drive operated completely normal, it was just slow to spin up.
One small warning: I've used hdparm in the past on a few very simple pc's that I used as servers. They had 2.5" harddisks, but 2 out of 3 disks died within one year. I've since removed the hdparm command, and the third disk is still running (for more than 3 years now). My experience from this and other disks is that disks often die at spin up (or spin down), and therefore, I try to avoid as much down spins as possible. I just take the noise as an unfortunate side effect. I have to note that this experience is based on older disks; perhaps new disks are more robust. YMMV.
Posted by Dave Jones at Wed Feb 1 01:42:38 2006:
One small warning: I've used hdparm in the past on a few very simple pc's that I used as servers. They had 2.5" harddisks, but 2 out of 3 disks died within one year. I've since removed the hdparm command, and the third disk is still running (for more than 3 years now). My experience from this and other disks is that disks often die at spin up (or spin down), and therefore, I try to avoid as much down spins as possible. I just take the noise as an unfortunate side effect. I have to note that this experience is based on older disks; perhaps new disks are more robust. YMMV.
status=51 error=04 means something (probably hdparm) sent the drive a command it didn't understand, so the drive said "eh?" back.
It's totally harmless, and doesn't mean your drive is dying.
Posted by Ross at Wed Feb 1 09:42:21 2006:
It's totally harmless, and doesn't mean your drive is dying.
