My WDBFJK0050HBK-NESN has an 8 second head parking timer like other drives. I would like to increase that time, maybe to 30 seconds
Has anyone managed to use the DOS utility supplied by WD, wdidle3, with a drive that is connected via USB? I expect I could do it if I opened up the enclosure and plugged the drive into a motherboard SATA port, but I think that discards the warranty.
I’m pretty sure I could do it with hdparm in Linux. It’s capable of reading the timer with hdparm -J, but attempts to change it warn me that it’s dangerous, and demand use of a --please-destroy-my-drive switch as confirmation. I don’t feel like taking that risk now.
Another option is http://idle3-tools.sourceforge.net/, which may emulate what wdidle3 does more accurately. The web page also warns that the software is experimental and not well tested. I didn’t test it via USB yet.
