Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5TB external HDD problems

[Warren Block]

On Sat, 23 Jun 2012, maxim naumov wrote:

> I am having problems with a recently purchased external HDD:
> 0bc2:5031 Seagate RSS LLC, FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5TB USB 3.0.
>
> the HDD would work fine for a while but then the kernel would lock up
> and require a powercycle. after turning off soft updates on that
> filesystem the lock up has disappeared, but the system still reports
> lots of errors repeatedly like the following:
>
> Jun 22 17:05:13 xxxx kernel: (da0:umass-sim0:0:0:0): AutoSense failed
> Jun 22 17:05:13 xxxx kernel:
> g_vfs_done():da0s1d[WRITE(offset=406613852160, length=16384)]error = 5
>
> after getting into that state the HDD seems unresponsive. usbconfig
> reset/power doesn't help, you have to physically unplug the drive and
> plug it back in.
>
> the same FreeBSD box, same USB socket, same cable, same backup
> software and data, but a different USB 3.0 drive (Verbatim 1TB) shows
> no errors.

Doing some research on drives lately, I saw notes from Mac users 
complaining that these drives went off-line due to power saving. 
Unfortunately I can't find those comments again.

So it's worth trying to disable power saving on that drive. 
sysutils/ataidle can do it, and can run from rc.conf:
   ataidle_enable="YES"
   ataidle_devices="da0"
   ataidle_da0="-P 0"

Failing that, the Windows software included with the drive might be able 
to disable the standby or sleep mode.  Apparently some of these drives 
ignore that and sleep anyway.  I would call that defective and return 
the drive.