Invoking "sleep mode" on WD20EARX with hdparm

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

Does anybody know if there is a “sleep mode” for the WD20EARX and whether it can be invoked with hdparm under Linux?

Is the “idle3 mode” the same as sleep mode, i.e. does it make the drive completely silent? Is there a way to invoke it with hdparm?

Thank you!

2

I do not have too much Linux experience, but check if this is related to your request:  The S.M.A.R.T Attribute 193 Load/Unload counter keeps increasing on a SATA 2 hard drive 

3

Thanks for the reply, but I already know about the idle3-issue on Linux, so to speak; it’s easy enough to circumvent.

I suppose that what I really want to know is whether the idle3 mode corresponds to “sleep mode” in terms of noise (that is no noise) and energy consumption (that is extremely little or none). If so, I’ll just make sure that the drive, which will be used for storage only (i.e. not by the OS directly), enters idle3 mode after 20 mins or so, and all should be fine :slight_smile:

4

WD’s wdidle3.exe utility has an open sourceLinux equivalent:
http://idle3-tools.sourceforge.net

As for what Idle3 mode is, WD’s documentation states that “WD drives are designed to reduce power consumption, in part by positioning the heads in a park position (unloading the heads) and turning off unnecessary electronics, resulting in substantial power savings. WD defines this mode as Idle 3.”

It’s unclear whether this means that the drive also spins down. I don’t have an affected WD drive, so I can’t test this for you.