Drive spin-down - impact?

[stevech]

If I arrange the (XP) PC to spin down the drives for video storage due to inactivity - and since they take several seconds to spin-up, would SageTV lose data or otherwise "foul-up" a recording due to the spin-up?

[ukmgranger]

I have all of my drives spin down after 10 mins. It does not cause a problem with Sage. The only downfall is when you watch live TV for the first time (after the drives have spun down) it takes a few seconds for the drive to spin up.

[TakeFlight]

I know this goes along the lines of the argument of whether you keep a computer on all the time or shut it off when not in use so I realize there are varying opinions. But, my opinion is you are creating more wear and tear having the hard drive spin down and up then just leaving it running all the time. And the electricity savings is going to be pennies anyway.

[stevech]

well - I just installed more Video recording storage - added a 250GB Maxstor IDE drive. $70 after rebates

BUT - it's quite noisy. Much more so than any other drive I've had. Does not sound defective. It tends to vibrate at the resonant freq. of the tin in my PC case. I fiddled with mounting location/screws, etc. I'm on the verge of returning it. But alas, I'll get store credit and there are no more of these cheap drives in stock.

[ukmgranger]

Originally Posted by TakeFlight

I know this goes along the lines of the argument of whether you keep a computer on all the time or shut it off when not in use so I realize there are varying opinions. But, my opinion is you are creating more wear and tear having the hard drive spin down and up then just leaving it running all the time. And the electricity savings is going to be pennies anyway.

The only reason I have my drives spin down is the noise factor. My server (which is located in my bedroom built-in wardrobe) has 4 x drives in the case and 4 x firewire drives hanging off it. when I'm in bed I prefer not to have them all spinning as I can hear the humming noise coming from the wardrobe.

[joe123]

I also have my hard drives (4 of them) set to spin down after 15 minutes of non-use through Windows XP power setup.

Now, you have me thinking with regards to SA (ShowAnalyzer). The DirMom program is set to check every 10 minutes for new movies to process, does this means that my disks will never spin down since it is checking so often even if there is no new movie to process?

[TakeFlight]

Originally Posted by ukmgranger

The only reason I have my drives spin down is the noise factor. My server (which is located in my bedroom built-in wardrobe) has 4 x drives in the case and 4 x firewire drives hanging off it. when I'm in bed I prefer not to have them all spinning as I can hear the humming noise coming from the wardrobe.

I can understand that. But I guess that means you don't record any shows during the night when you are asleep? Because for me at least, the spinning up of the drives in the middle of the night would be more likely to wake me up than the constant sound of them always spinning. But, that's just me. Of course, if you don't record anything during those hours then I can see spinning them down then.

[TakeFlight]

Originally Posted by joe123

Now, you have me thinking with regards to SA (ShowAnalyzer). The DirMom program is set to check every 10 minutes for new movies to process, does this means that my disks will never spin down since it is checking so often even if there is no new movie to process?

That sounds about right.

[joe123]

Originally Posted by TakeFlight

That sounds about right.

A lot of data is cache before it hits the drive, so I was wondering if ShowAnalzer was simply getting it's data (pardon the punch ) from memory instead of actually going out to the drives.

[ben_95sl1]

For hard drive noise - If you haven't already: Suspend your hard drives, they will be much quieter (see silentpcreview). Most modern drives are near silent then, especially with AAM. Of course suspending only takes my 7200rpm scsi drive from the loudest seeks I have ever heard by a long shot to 2nd loudest seeks I've ever heard Rotational Vibration is gone though.

[TakeFlight]

Originally Posted by joe123

A lot of data is cache before it hits the drive, so I was wondering if ShowAnalzer was simply getting it's data (pardon the punch ) from memory instead of actually going out to the drives.

Well, I haven't used ShowAnalyzer but if it is looking for new recordings at a specified period of time it will have to look at the actual hard drive to do this. There won't be anything in cache to tell it this. Something would need to be accessed first before it will get into cache. You wouldn't want a utility that relies on finding new files to simply look at the cache and say "nope, no new files".

[mikesm]

You might be able to adapt pvrscheduler to do what you want. Take a look here: http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.so...ic.php?t=12179

It doesn't work with Sage right now, but you might be able to work with the author to enable that.

Thanks,
Mike

[stevech]

drive noise... this new 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB disk is far more noiser than any other disk I've owned. It's the platter motor, not the head positioner.

I've never seen but will look for mounting isolator/dampers. But really, either this drive is bad or the design is bad - not what I've found typ. of WD drives in the past.

[TakeFlight]

Something doesn't seem right. I have the following WD drives...

80GB IDE
(2) 100GB IDE
160GB SATA
200GB IDE
400GB SATA

They are located among three different computers and the only thing I hear in those computers are the fans, not the hard drives. The newest drive is only about 2 weeks old and the oldest is around 4 years old.

Hard drives only seem to be getting quieter with each new purchase. Unlike 5-10 years ago when they used to "chug" and "whine".

[stevech]

maybe I'll RMA it to WD. I've never done that.
I wonder if they'll just send it back marked NoTroubleFound since it's not a hard failure.

My WAF has declined on noise since I put this in.

[TakeFlight]

Originally Posted by stevech

maybe I'll RMA it to WD. I've never done that.
I wonder if they'll just send it back marked NoTroubleFound since it's not a hard failure.

I doubt they will even bother to check your drive before sending the replacement. I RMA'd a WD drive several years ago with no issues.

[aperry]

Sound-wise, most people think that the best quietest drives are Seagate drives. WD and Maxtor are not known for being quiet when running.

[ben_95sl1]

With current drives, it seems samsung is better in general for noise then seagate. Plus there are issues with AAM settings which can't be changed by the end user on recent seagate drives due to some sort of lawsuit. My IDE 7200.8 is one of those, though it's pretty quiet as is (which is all relative).