Re: [gentoo-user] Re: External hard drive and idle activity

[Dale]

Mick wrote:
> On Thursday, 2 January 2020 18:48:03 GMT Dale wrote:
>> Ian Zimmerman wrote:
>>> On 2020-01-01 18:09, Dale wrote:
>>>> As some may recall, I have a 8TB external SATA hard drive that I do
>>>> back ups on. Usually, I back up once a day, more often if
>>>> needed. Usually I turn the power on, mount it, do the back ups,
>>>> unmount and turn the power back off. Usually it is powered up for 5
>>>> minutes or so. When I unmount it tho, I sometimes notice it is still
>>>> doing something. I can feel the mechanism for the heads moving. It has
>>>> a slight vibration to it.  Questions are, what is it doing and should
>>>> I let it finish before powering it off? I'd assume that once it in
>>>> unmounted, the copy process is done so the files are safe. I guess it
>>>> is doing some sort of internal checks or something but I'm not sure.
>>> I have observed the same thing.  But in my case, I also disconnect the
>>> _cable_ from the computer to the enclosure when I am done ... and still
>>> the drive activity goes on.  From that I conclude that it is the drive
>>> circuitry itself doing some kind of internal housekeeping, and there is
>>> no point in worrying about it because one would wait forever for it to
>>> end.
>> That's one thing that makes it unnervey.  I'll put my hand around to the
>> back and feel those little bumps.  I wait until I think it is done but
>> just as I'm about to power it off, it bumps again.  It's so
>> unpredictable, I never know if it is done doing its thing or not.  Just
>> like now, it's unmounted, did that during last reply, it hasn't did the
>> bump thingy while reading your reply or me typing mine in so far.  Now
>> as soon as I reach around to turn it off, it'll likely do the bump thing
>> again.  lol
> I suspect it is now reading your mind!  Is this a case of AI?!
>
> LOL!
>
>
>> One thing is for sure tho, if you unplug the cable, whatever it is
>> doing, it's internal.  Sort of hard for the puter to be doing something
>> when it isn't connected.  That narrows the options down a lot.  That's a
>> good piece of info there.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Dale
>>
>> :-)  :-)
> In case you missed it in a previous post - have you compiled CONFIG_DM_ZONED
> in your kernel to see if its performance changes?
>
> https://zonedstorage.io/linux/config/
>
> It's behaviour may not change whatsoever, if the drive only has an internal
> (SMR firmware) data write mechanism.  However, if the drive is exposing an I/O
> API to the OS, then you could well see a difference to how its data storage
> bumps, spins and shakes as it flushes its journal and goes about its garbage
> collection process when the Linux kernel 'talks' to it.
>


It seems that is not enabled in my kernel. 


Symbol: DM_ZONED [=n]


It took some effort to find and enable everything to get that but I
finally found them all.  It seems three things has to be enabled in
order for that option to be visible.  Then after that, make wouldn't
work.  I checked the gcc settings, emerged libtool and checked on
everything else with no improvement.  Then I copied the .config file to
a safe spot and did a make clean.  When I copied the file back and ran
make again, it worked.  No clue on what was up with that.  You know my
luck tho.  ;-)

I'll try to reboot the new kernel in a bit.  It's building at the
moment.  Thanks for posting about this.  I did not see it in other
replies.  I thought it might be in Rich's but didn't see it.  The extra
nudge was helpful.

Dale

:-)  :-)