Hi,
I have a number of hard drives connected to an IBM M1015 flashed to LSI 9211-8i/IT and connected via a forward breakout cable (SFF8087).
The drives are showing as always active (ie: never sleep). I have drives attached directly attached to the motherboard via SATA - SATA Cables (ie: no SAS involved) and these report as sleeping during times of disk inactivity.
Am I able to believe the sleeping vs active status from HD Sentinel for the drives connected via the M1015. I am trying to determine whether these drives actually go to sleep and it's not being reported correctly or if i need to take some corrective action. FWIW the start/stop counter for the drives connected to the motherboard increment occasionally whereas the counter for the drives connected via the M1015 don't seem to increment.
Can I believe the sleeping vs active status
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hdsentinel
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Re: Can I believe the sleeping vs active status
Generally, you need to be careful when interpreting this value.
Yes, exactly as you can see, some devices (including special RAID controllers and also some external hard disks / enclosures) may have their own power management methods, which works completely differently than the standard power management (which you can configure / adjust in Windows).
The problem is that even Hard Disk Sentinel does its best to detect if the connected hard disks are active or sleeping, these devices may always report that hard disks are active, regardless of their real, actual power state. In this case yes, Hard Disk Sentinel reports that the hard disks are active in all cases.
This is not really related to the hard disk types, the cable types (SFF8087 vs. simple SATA cables) but related to the hard disk controller, more precisely its firmware and drivers.
Constantly working on researching special situations, special RAID controllers and devices - but there are some devices reporting the power state incorrectly.
Generally, if you see that the start/stop counters do not change, it means that the hard disks never go to sleep, they never stopped/restarted, especially if you see other values (for example power on time, temperature) changing. If this happens, then the reported always-active status is absolutely correct.
Yes, exactly as you can see, some devices (including special RAID controllers and also some external hard disks / enclosures) may have their own power management methods, which works completely differently than the standard power management (which you can configure / adjust in Windows).
The problem is that even Hard Disk Sentinel does its best to detect if the connected hard disks are active or sleeping, these devices may always report that hard disks are active, regardless of their real, actual power state. In this case yes, Hard Disk Sentinel reports that the hard disks are active in all cases.
This is not really related to the hard disk types, the cable types (SFF8087 vs. simple SATA cables) but related to the hard disk controller, more precisely its firmware and drivers.
Constantly working on researching special situations, special RAID controllers and devices - but there are some devices reporting the power state incorrectly.
Generally, if you see that the start/stop counters do not change, it means that the hard disks never go to sleep, they never stopped/restarted, especially if you see other values (for example power on time, temperature) changing. If this happens, then the reported always-active status is absolutely correct.
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rxp
Re: Can I believe the sleeping vs active status
Is there an actual sleeping vs active count? I'd love to see that for my drives.
Is it a specific SMART attribute i'm supposed to look at? I can only see the total power on time on the summary page.
Is it a specific SMART attribute i'm supposed to look at? I can only see the total power on time on the summary page.
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hdsentinel
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Re: Can I believe the sleeping vs active status
The status of sleeping vs. active periods is not counted by the hard disks, there is no specific S.M.A.R.T. attribute available for this purpose.
The current power state of the hard disk is displayed on the Information page: you may notice "Active" or "Sleeping" there, based on the power state information detected from the actual hard disk.
Also if the disk activity icon is enabled for the particular hard disk(s) at Configuration -> Hard Disk Drives page, the activity icon will turn a "Zzz" symbol, indicating that the drive is sleeping.
The current power state of the hard disk is displayed on the Information page: you may notice "Active" or "Sleeping" there, based on the power state information detected from the actual hard disk.
Also if the disk activity icon is enabled for the particular hard disk(s) at Configuration -> Hard Disk Drives page, the activity icon will turn a "Zzz" symbol, indicating that the drive is sleeping.