Hard disk spin down (Linkstation Pro Duo)?

[hermann_berg]

   

I have recently bought a Linkstation Pro Duo. For noise and power saving reasons, it would be great, if the disk would go to sleep mode (=spin down), when not being used for a while.

 

Questions:

- Is this feature available for my box?

- Is it planned?

 

I have seen this topic come up in many discussions (on the web) now, so if nothing else, this message is to reinforce the importance of such a feature (e.g. compared to competing small, Intel Atom-based home servers).

 

PS: Doubts exist, whether spinning down shortens the life cycle of the HD. It would be great, if Buffalo could comment on that (if there are plans to implement).

[Paul]

As of right now there are no plans to set his feature in this unit. I will send this request up to buffalos development team. 

[mriv]

   

Please tally one more vote for adding this feature -- I was about to get the 2Tb model on sale at Fry's right now but wanted to verify the disks would spin down --   I'm sad to find out they do not.  I'd like to have a little NAS box, and this one looks perfect, but  my use is light and having the disks spining 24x7 seems wasteful, and I don't want the noise when it is not in use.    The "Auto" power mode is cute but doesn't serve my needs.  I want a server accessible from multiple machines, as well as from outside when I am travelling, but my access is light.

 

 

[davo]

   Why not get a linkstation Pro (not Pro Duo) with the 1.15 FW you can set it when to switch on and offand you can ftp to it for remote access.

[jk17]

   

I too would like a spin down option.  This would also help with having to keep the NAS on for Web access since at least the drives wouldn't be on 24x7.  It would be nice remove this function from nassvc.exe running on the PC and have it controlled by firmware settings.

Does anyone know what all those parameters passed to nassvc.exe are?

John

[auberon]

Yup, I just got the LS Pro Duo and and, really, a drive spin down feature would not just be great to preserve the drives but also to save some energy.

 

Even better, why not allow a sleep mode that wakes up the LS when there is a request via the network?

[Jotin]

There is that option. Please read the manual. There is a sleep function and and auto on off function on this unit if you are talking about the LS WXL or LS WVL.

[auberon]

Jotin,

 

Thanks for getting back to my post. It took me a while to reply and to do a bit of homework.

 

I did consult the manual and found the option to set my LS WVL to auto. But this options puts the unit in a deep sleep mode. To wake the unit from this mode, I require a NASNavigator equiped machine on my LAN. Someone trying to access the unit from web cannot wake the unit up.

What I was proposing was a low-energy mode which allows the unit to be woken up if accessed from either the web or the LAN.

 

Why am I so fixated on this feature request? Have you ever looked at the power consumption of the LS WVL unit?

 

Power consumption (no matter if accessed or idle): 20 W

Power consumption of just the power supply (LS WVL unit itself turned off and disconnected from power supply): 6 W (!!)

 

I will double check those values with a 2nd power meter but either way, even at a 25% error margin, these values seem really high. I have never seen a harddrive unit that consumes as much power as the LS WVL. Advertised was something like >1 W in hybernation mode. The measured power consumption is 6 W when it's turned off, never mind it being in hybernation mode.

 

Why can't there be a spin down mode for the hardware that reduces power consumption to a value below 15 or 10 W?

 

Perhaps you could pass this on to the engineers in Japan? I would like to know what Buffalo has to say about this. 

[Shonk]

Buffalo are quite capabe of adding spindown

the menu system is there in all ls series devices but hidden

the scripts are in the terrastation devices

as they have enabled it in terrastation devices

which run on the same base menu system / kernel

 

it seems to be a delib move not to add spindown

on home devices, it has been requested for 5 years

and been ignored

 

 

[auberon]

Hi Shonk,

 

I understand. Any idea how to activate the scripts?

[Hoggle]

I too have just purchased a Linkstation Pro Duo and I am very disappointed to find that there isn't a HDD spin down setting. I wish to access the unit remotely so the unit will need to be left on. HDDs are very expensive to buy and I don't wish to shorten the lives of the ones I have.  Is my only option to return the unit or is there a workaround?

[wahhh]

It is very strange that LS-WVL does not support HDD spin down. Is it so compltcated?