Re: [edlug] frequent hdd writes

[Bruce Cran <bruce@xxx.xxx.xxx>]

Andy Koppe wrote:
> > Hello, I am running Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 installed from a Knoppix CD 
> with the 2.6.17 kernel on my IBM Thinkpads (t22+t23). I have noticed 
> that the hdd is written to very frequently (in <5 sec. intervals), 
> even when the machine is idle. Does anyone have any experience with 
> controlling this behaviour, in order to control power consumption?
>
> I messed around with this a bit trying to quieten down my server, 
> albeit with somewhat limited success. Unfortunately there appears to 
> be no single solution to this.

It's certainly possible to reduce the noise the disk makes when it's 
accessing data, even if it stays spinning - and I've had success in 
getting the disk to stay spun down for extended periods of time by 
tweaking the logging settings, preventing the VM from swapping to disk 
etc - but that was on a router, so it probably won't be suitable for a 
desktop/server machine.  I've put together a utility 
(http://freshmeat.net/projects/ataidle) which provides all the same 
power management settings as hdparm does, but with what is hopefully a 
simpler interface.

--
Bruce
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