[arch-general] Western Digital external drives

[Chris Down]

Hi Ralf,

On 14 March 2013 23:20, Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net> wrote:
> I'm aware that there's an Arch Wiki about WD drives. However, I need to
> know if something is bad with Linux or a brand new WD drive.
>
> In the German WD forms I got a reply, with the claim, that once a WD
> Elements is spin down, it will park, _not_ spin up again, if there's no
> access.

That's usual for most drives, it would surprise me if any modern
consumer WD drive didn't do this.


> For my updated Arch Linux, 64-bit with current kernel and current
> kernel-rt, running current Xfce 4 the drive does spin down and up again
> and again even when _no_ partition is mounted, I'm running a Xfce 4
> session without an application launched, while I don't use the computer.
> So with completely no access by me,
>
> - Arch Linux _does_ access the drive, even if no partition is mounted
> - or I got a brand new drive that's broken and should make use of the
>   warranty

It's probably neither of these things, more than likely there is some
program which spins up your drives periodically to try and get
information about them.

Have you tested in another environment (the installer, perhaps)? My
first guess would be something to do with Xfce.

Best,

Chris