I'm looking into using external hard drives in the 6-10TB range for media storage on Linux Mint DE, but I've come across mixed reports about whether WD Elements, WD My Book, and Seagate Expansion drives actually spin down when idle. Apparently, there's some issue with the USB bridge controllers causing them to keep spinning indefinitely. Since these drives are quite popular, I wonder if this is a widespread problem or just isolated cases. I'm curious about your experiences with these drives on Linux. Specifically, I'd like to know:
- For WD Elements users: Does your drive spin down properly after being idle, or does it keep spinning?
- For WD My Book users: What about you? Does it manage power well?
- For Seagate Expansion users: Does the hdparm command work for you in controlling the spin-down?
Please include your specific drive model, Linux distribution, kernel version, and any special settings you had to configure for power management. Also, if you've successfully used other brands that manage to spin down correctly on Linux, I would love your recommendations! Thanks for sharing!
4 Answers
I own a WD Elements 2TB drive, and while it defaults to APM level 128 (which doesn't spin down), you can adjust it with hdparm commands. I've noticed it still uses power even when it spins down. My trick is using kernel autosuspend which saves even more power. The udev rules I use keep it in a low-power state when not in use, and it wakes up quickly when needed!
I've been using a WD Elements for years on Linux without any issues. If you're unsure about whether your drive can spin down, you can check the Power-On Hours using SMART data with the 'smartctl' command. That'll give you a better idea if it's been spinning constantly or not.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll definitely give that command a shot.
From what I've seen, a lot of this might boil down to udev rules in your Linux setup. Mint might have some preset configurations for certain drives. However, lots of users report that their drives won't spin down even on Windows or Mac, which hints at a bigger issue with the drive controllers. It's puzzling that not more users are complaining about it if it were widespread.
It's interesting you mention udev rules! I've heard from users that trying to set power management manually with hdparm doesn't always work on these problematic drives. If it’s a universal issue, maybe it's related to different production batches of USB controllers? That might explain the varied experiences.
I've got a mix of drives, including a 12TB WD Elements and a couple of 6TB Seagate expansions, and they all spin down as expected when I'm using them on Linux or even Mac. If they're idle, they'll spin up again when needed, so I don't think the spin-down issue is universal. It's working well for me across several distros like Debian and Ubuntu.
Thanks for sharing the udev rules! That's super helpful.