Stop using a SATA drive

[Adrian Chadd]

Hi,

erm - yes, PCs do.

You can likely send commands to USB disks for "plz sync and power down thx".

You can almost always turn off and on USB ports on your computer.

You can find out what kind of power consumption each port is (low,
high) and turn them off if needs be.

You can also tell SATA disks to spin down too.

There's a lot more going on in modern PCs than in the 90s.




-adrian


On 25 August 2015 at 07:21, Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
> On Mon, 24 Aug 2015 15:15:26 -0700, Chris Stankevitz wrote:
>> On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 12:42 PM, Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
>> > Ye olde atacontrol had a "detach" option. Its equivalent
>> > is "camcontrol stop" which you have discovered. This should
>> > be sufficient.
>> >
>> > However, I'm doing this with SATA and external USB disks
>> > a lot: Issue "sync", call umount, give it some seconds
>> > to actually complete (!) those tasks, and then power it
>> > off (external power supply off for USB, combined plug
>> > removed from SATA disk). No problems so far.
>>
>> Polytropon,
>>
>> Thank you.  I've been doing the same... but I assumed/hoped there was
>> more I could do.  I also shutdown smartd before pulling the drive, and
>> start smartd afterwards.  I hope there are not others. ("hope" is a
>> common theme here... which is why I'm writing to the list)
>
> The "problem" is that the PC (and let's face it: most x86-based
> server hardware can be summarized with "PC", too) does not have
> a "programmable infrastructure" for power control. It would need
> to consist of two parts: the electric/electronic part that allows
> you to switch on and off several power lines inside the system
> (and maybe even out of the system), and an interface in _software_
> that can be accessed by system daemons and user programs (an API).
>
> For example, mainframe and midrange systems _have_ this ability.
> The SPCN (system power control network) inside an AS/400 for
> example has such a component. First, only the system console
> and a part of the power supply will be powered; when you then
> tell the system to boot, the main processor - inactive until
> now! - will be started, the disks will be powered up, and
> the expansion components will be started. At system shutdown
> time, the whole procedure reverses, just leaving the console
> running. As far as I remember, selectively "taking down" a
> disk (to be replaced) was also possible from within software...
>
>
>
>> I didn't know that the heads were parked when the power is cut... but
>> that is a relief to hear.
>
> This is what happens when you detach a USB hard disk. The drive
> will spin up as soon as _power_ is available - no need for a
> real connection to a computer! And when the power is cut, the
> heads will slide back into parking position where they will
> be locked (for safely moving the disk).
>
>
>
> --
> Polytropon
> Magdeburg, Germany
> Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
> Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"