On 10 Nov 15:25, Barry Samuels wrote:
I've tried the UDEV suggestion but the strange thing is that when the rule is activated and the script runs I can hear the drive switch off but it then restarts immediately. If I then run that script from a terminal the drive shuts down and doesn't restart.
I can now reveal why this happens (probably)... according to my debian system in /etc/udev/rules.d there is a file z60_hdparm.conf, that then applies hdparm rules... thus overriding anything previously sent at it.
What I've done in the end is to substitute "/sbin/hdparm -S 60 /dev/sdb" in the UDEV rule and the drive then switches off 5 minutes later which is fine.
You could try adding the following to /etc/hdparm.conf:
/dev/hdb { sleep spindown_time = 60 }
And remove your udev rule... that *should* do everything for you, and will get invoked by the already existing udev rule.
Thanks,