How do I automatically spin down the hard drive to save power?

I have searched for this in the wiki and the forums, so if I've missed something, please point it out to me, but is there a way to have Arch automatically spin down hard drives and/or suspend the machine to ram to save power? I'm not really interested in the full suspend to disk because I don't think my BIOS will do a wake on lan, and I'm trying to run a home server here.
Anyway, I'm just looking for ways to save on my electricity usage. Any ideas?

If the HD is just used for storage, hdparm is your friend. with hdparm -S you can set the timeout until the disk spins down.
If its a system disk hdparm will work too, but the HD will spin up after 2 secs (or less, depending on your HD) again because of the OS accessing the disk (logs, journal etc). Laptop-mode-tools works very well on laptops because it automatically sets the journal-rewrite time, file-write-cache size and the time when new data gets written to the disk. If you are not reading anything or anything thats not in the cache, it works very well - but thats on laptops. I tried using laptop-mode-tools on my desktop, but without luck (yes, it detected that i wasnt using a laptop).
You could try using cpudyn with the cpu-idling stuff disabled (option -i 0). I know it has a feature that spins down a specific HD after a certain amount of time. But i don't know for sure if cpudyn automatically remounts the HD, so that it caches all the write activity (like laptop-mode-tools).
Good luck.

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I have a early 2004 G5.
I want to know if there is a way to MANUALLY (as is on demand) spin down the hard drive/s WITHOUT putting the computer to sleep.
As I recall this was a piece of functionality that was in the old pre OSX operating system but as far as we can see is no longer available (besides checking the "put the hard disk to sleep when possible" box in the Energy Saver system pref).
THX
RTM

Hi RTM,
All I can think of only comes close to your query: spinning them down sooner than the default ten minutes that you have to wait for when checking the "put the hard disk to sleep when possible" box in Energy Saver.
Set it to one minute, by running this Terminal command:
*sudo pmset -a disksleep 1*
(set it back to default ten minutes with this command:
*sudo pmset -a disksleep 10* )
Note that spinning HDs up and down and up and down all the time shortens their life.
I guess you need to spin them down as soon as possible because they dont wake up often in the way you use your Mac?

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i get the booting files(archlive.img,vmlinuz26) in the archlinux2008_6_i686.iso and put them in c:\
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root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz26
initrd (hd0,0)/archlive.img
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i get those from : http://blog.chinaunix.net/u/31909/showart_1121360.html
but it stopped , some code printing on the screen...................it can not continue..
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e mail: [email protected]
THS.
--------this is my topic for the first time in english, I hope that you can know what i said ~~~
Last edited by 自学linux (2008-08-29 03:14:54)

自学linux wrote:
http://blog.chinaunix.net/u/31909/showart_1121360.html
A waste of CD-ROM...........,in china, many people install linux just by iso,don't burn the iso,
could you give me the two files (the "vmlinz "and the "initrd.img") in archlinux2008.03.iso, those can't find in archlinux2008.06.iso
my email :[email protected]
Do you have a USB stick you could copy the image to? Where I live, a CD costs $0.50 at most. To put that into perspective. A coffee costs a $1.00. Either a CD costs a lot more than a coffee where you live or are you telling me you'd rather get a lot of grey hair than buy half a coffee?
Sorry I can't be of much help. I don't know how to do this method of installation. If you're desperate, you could try making an extra partition, and trying something with that. Take a look at these:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fas … nux_System
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … her_distro
Last edited by solarwind (2008-08-27 04:37:59)

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Message was edited by: Ingo2711

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Here is a script doing the trick.
--[SCRIPT openFileFromNumbers]
Enregistrer le script en tant que Script : openFileFromNumbers.scpt
déplacer le fichier ainsi créé dans le dossier
<VolumeDeDémarrage>:Users:<votreCompte>:Library:Scripts:Applications:Numbers:
Sélectionner une cellule contenant un chemin d'accès à un fichier.
menu Scripts > Numbers > openFileFromNumbers
Le script ouvrira le fichier.
--=====
L'aide du Finder explique:
L'Utilitaire AppleScript permet d'activer le Menu des scripts :
Ouvrez l'Utilitaire AppleScript situé dans le dossier Applications/AppleScript.
(* à vérifier avec Snow Leopard *)
Cochez la case "Afficher le menu des scripts dans la barre de menus".
--=====
Save the script as Script : openFileFromNumbers.scpt
Move the newly created file into the folder:
<startup Volume>:Users:<yourAccount>:Library:Scripts:Applications:Numbers:
Select a cell containing a link to a file.
menu Scripts > Numbers > openFileFromNumbers
The script will open the file.
--=====
The Finder's Help explains:
To make the Script menu appear:
Open the AppleScript utility located in Applications/AppleScript.
Select the "Show Script Menu in menu bar" checkbox.
--=====
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France)
2009/12/28
--=====
property useSafari : true
true = use Unix paths and open thru Safari
example : file://Macintosh HD/Users/yvan_koenig/Documents/95.jpg
false = use HFS paths and open thru Finder
example : Macintosh HD:Users:yvan_koenig:Documents:95.jpg
on run
set {dName, sName, tName, rname, rowNum1, colNum1, rowNum2, colNum2} to my getSelParams()
tell application "Numbers" to tell document dName to tell sheet sName to tell table tName
set thePath to value of cell rowNum1 of column colNum1
end tell
if useSafari then
tell application "Safari" to open location thePath
else
tell application "Finder" to open file thePath
end if
end run
--=====
on getSelParams()
local r_Name, t_Name, s_Name, d_Name, col_Num1, row_Num1, col_Num2, row_Num2
set {d_Name, s_Name, t_Name, r_Name} to my getSelection()
if r_Name is missing value then
if my parleAnglais() then
error "No selected cells"
else
error "Il n'y a pas de cellule sélectionnée !"
end if
end if
set two_Names to my decoupe(r_Name, ":")
set {row_Num1, col_Num1} to my decipher(item 1 of two_Names, d_Name, s_Name, t_Name)
if item 2 of two_Names = item 1 of two_Names then
set {row_Num2, col_Num2} to {row_Num1, col_Num1}
else
set {row_Num2, col_Num2} to my decipher(item 2 of two_Names, d_Name, s_Name, t_Name)
end if
return {d_Name, s_Name, t_Name, r_Name, row_Num1, col_Num1, row_Num2, col_Num2}
end getSelParams
--=====
set {rowNumber, columnNumber} to my decipher(cellRef,docName,sheetName,tableName)
apply to named row or named column !
on decipher(n, d, s, t)
tell application "Numbers" to tell document d to tell sheet s to tell table t to return {address of row of cell n, address of column of cell n}
end decipher
--=====
set { d_Name, s_Name, t_Name, r_Name} to my getSelection()
on getSelection()
local _, theRange, theTable, theSheet, theDoc, errMsg, errNum
tell application "Numbers" to tell document 1
repeat with i from 1 to the count of sheets
tell sheet i
set x to the count of tables
if x > 0 then
repeat with y from 1 to x
try
(selection range of table y) as text
on error errMsg number errNum
set {_, theRange, _, theTable, _, theSheet, _, theDoc} to my decoupe(errMsg, quote)
return {theDoc, theSheet, theTable, theRange}
end try
end repeat -- y
end if -- x>0
end tell -- sheet
end repeat -- i
end tell -- document
return {missing value, missing value, missing value, missing value}
end getSelection
--=====
on decoupe(t, d)
local l
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to d
set l to text items of t
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
return l
end decoupe
--=====
on parleAnglais()
local z
try
tell application "Numbers" to set z to localized string "Cancel"
on error
set z to "Cancel"
end try
return (z is not "Annuler")
end parleAnglais
--=====
--[/SCRIPT]
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 28 décembre 2009 18:38:42

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How do I automatically spin down the hard drive to save power?

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