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Grant Taylor wrote: |
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> On 1/1/20 5:09 PM, Dale wrote: |
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>> Howdy, |
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> |
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> Hi, |
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> |
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>> As some may recall, I have a 8TB external SATA hard drive that I do |
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>> back ups on. Usually, I back up once a day, more often if needed. |
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>> Usually I turn the power on, mount it, do the back ups, unmount and |
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>> turn the power back off. Usually it is powered up for 5 minutes or |
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>> so. When I unmount it tho, I sometimes notice it is still doing |
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>> something. I can feel the mechanism for the heads moving. It has a |
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>> slight vibration to it. Questions are, what is it doing and should I |
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>> let it finish before powering it off? I'd assume that once it in |
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>> unmounted, the copy process is done so the files are safe. I guess |
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>> it is doing some sort of internal checks or something but I'm not sure. |
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> |
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> There might be some activity for up to 30 seconds after umount |
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> finishes and returns to the command prompt. |
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> |
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> Note: umount will normally block until buffers are flushed to disk. |
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> |
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>> Is it safe to turn it off even tho it is doing whatever it is doing? |
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> |
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> I wouldn't. |
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> |
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>> Should I wait? |
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> |
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> I would. |
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> |
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>> Does it matter? |
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> |
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> Maybe. |
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> |
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> Is the drive SATA connected or USB connected to the machine? |
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> |
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> In some ways it doesn't matter. You can tell the kernel to eject the |
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> drive. Once that finishes, there is no active remnants of the drive |
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> in kernel. 5–15 seconds after that and you should be quite safe to |
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> power the drive off. |
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> |
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> echo 1 > /sys/class/block/$DEVICENAME/device/delete |
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> |
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> That will cause the kernel to gracefully disconnect the drive. |
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> |
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>> Thanks. |
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> |
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> :-) |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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|
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It is connected with a eSATA cable. It has a USB connector as well but |
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I just don't trust USB as much as I do SATA. Other USB enclosures had |
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"issues". ;-) |
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|
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If I touch the enclosure and feel it doing something, I leave it on, |
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just in case. I actually been wondering about this for a while. |
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Sometimes it will stop after a couple minutes, sometimes it is still |
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doing its thing 30 minutes later. In the case of the first, I was |
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concerned about files being cached etc. Thing is, it *should* do that |
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before unmounting. In the case of it going on for 30 minutes or more, I |
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was wondering if it was doing some sort of housekeeping, media tests or |
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something. I just didn't know if it was important to wait or not. On |
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occasion I would leave the drive on overnight or all day. I figure it |
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would be able to at least do a quick self test and report errors if any. |
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|
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Thanks for the extra info. It helps a bit. |
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|
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Dale |
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|
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:-) :-) |
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