Disabling write-behind on IDE drives, and SMART

[Mark Kirkwood]

Jim C. Nasby wrote:
> Question one: how do I disable write caching on IDE drives? I know the
> setting is hw.ata.wc=0, but where do I put that? In loader.conf? This is
> FreeBSD 4.10, btw.
>
In /boot/loader.conf will do it.

> Also, has any thought been given to making the default 0, like it is for
> SCSI devices? I'm honestly surprised and disappointed that the default
> is speed over data integrity.
I think it was trialled in 4.3 then changed for 4.4 (according to the 
handbook, the performance hit was considered to be too high)

best wishes

Mark