[SOLVED] Hard drive does not stop spinning

[abhiroopb]

I recently bought a 320gb Western Digital Scorpio Blue (2.5") and stuck it into my laptop. I then installed ubuntu, created 4 partitions (swap, /, /home, and XP) and so on.

Recently I have noticed that no matter how long I leave the computer for the hard drive just does not stop spinning. What should I do?

Thanks

EDIT: Just a note, I also installed Ramlog which is supposed to write log files to RAM so as to stop the hard disk spinning unnecessarily. I mention this as I have no idea how it works, so it may be causing a problem.

[Het Irv]

Do you have anything else that is running alot? Processes, network useage, or anything eles that would affect the hard drive, or is the hard drive just spinning?

Does this only happen in Ubuntu or Windows as well?

[JoneYee]

Do you have conky installed?

sudo apt-get install conky

See which processes/applications are using up the most system resources.

Also, when the hard drive is spinning (unnecessarily) can you post the output of top?

top - 08:46:34 up 49 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.18, 0.39, 0.44
Tasks: 103 total,   1 running, 102 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 13.3%us,  7.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 79.1%id,  0.0%wa,  0.7%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:    515580k total,   498168k used,    17412k free,    22156k buffers
Swap:   489940k total,        0k used,   489940k free,   253580k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
 5289 root      20   0 46328  21m 8040 S 10.0  4.3   4:39.64 Xorg               
 5931 jaredozv  20   0  193m  76m  25m S  4.0 15.1   3:47.75 firefox            
 5984 jaredozv  20   0 82836  20m  10m S  2.7  4.0   0:01.94 gnome-terminal     
 5170 root      20   0  3420 1220 1068 S  0.7  0.2   0:01.34 hald-addon-stor    
 5585 jaredozv  20   0 11084 4856 2612 S  0.7  0.9   0:00.58 pulseaudio         
 6096 jaredozv  20   0  2308 1104  852 R  0.7  0.2   0:00.04 top                
    1 root      20   0  2844 1692  544 S  0.0  0.3   0:01.84 init               
    2 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd           
    3 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0        
    4 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.06 ksoftirqd/0        
    5 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/0         
    6 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.16 events/0           
    7 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.02 khelper            
   41 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.26 kblockd/0          
   44 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kacpid             
   45 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kacpi_notify       
  106 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.02 kseriod

[abhiroopb]

Well when I put my ear to where the HD is I can hear it spin. I guess it is being used while I am there, but I am talking about when I leave my computer running (without any open processes, save for the basic wireless and background program) and come back after like an hour and if I put my ear to the HD I can hear a lot of noise.

haven't really used Windows all that much, but I just noticed it so I guess I could test it ot on windows.

top output:

top - 21:53:06 up  2:51,  2 users,  load average: 0.23, 0.31, 0.30
Tasks: 148 total,   2 running, 145 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
Cpu(s): 10.8%us,  2.6%sy,  0.0%ni, 85.4%id,  0.0%wa,  0.2%hi,  1.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   2074216k total,  1973840k used,   100376k free,    63200k buffers
Swap:  2931820k total,        0k used,  2931820k free,  1093124k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
16586 abhiroop  20   0  371m 146m  28m S    6  7.2   2:20.36 miro.real          
 6693 abhiroop  20   0  166m  60m  26m R    5  3.0   8:13.37 amarokapp          
 6057 root      20   0 97080  84m  15m S    3  4.2   6:45.99 Xorg               
16595 abhiroop  20   0 88060  12m 7444 S    3  0.6   1:29.46 python             
19792 abhiroop  20   0 94300  23m  12m S    2  1.1   0:00.58 gnome-terminal     
 6393 abhiroop  20   0 38120  18m 9.9m S    1  0.9   0:37.11 python             
 6800 abhiroop  20   0  193m  71m  23m S    1  3.5   1:48.38 xulrunner-bin      
19813 abhiroop  20   0  2308 1140  856 R    1  0.1   0:00.06 top                
 6672 abhiroop  20   0  142m  46m  23m S    0  2.3   1:05.19 pidgin             
    1 root      20   0  2844 1688  544 S    0  0.1   0:02.26 init               
    2 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd           
    3 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0        
    4 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.96 ksoftirqd/0        
    5 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/0         
    6 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/1        
    7 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.26 ksoftirqd/1        
    8 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/1

How do I use conky?

[Het Irv]

I am not sure you need conky right now, thats more of a desktop customization program than a diagnostic, are you running amarok on your laptop when you leave it, if so the hard drive is probably still spinning because it is accessing your songs.

[JoneYee]

I am not sure you need conky right now, thats more of a desktop customization program than a diagnostic, are you running amarok on your laptop when you leave it, if so the hard drive is probably still spinning because it is accessing your songs.

That was my first thought as well.

The list provides applications that are running, so I would shut down applications (not system processes) sequentially to see which one stops drive access.

[tjwoosta]

to use conky press alt-f2 and type conky


but there is a set of hardisk monitoring tools (to monitor the usage and wear on your harddrive)

its called smartmontools but i actuall have never used it so i cant really begin to describe what to do

here is the official ubuntu help documentation
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Smartmontools

[abhiroopb]

Thanks for the responses. Well amarok is running (I use sqlite) but no songs are playing, I turned it on but never turned on any music.

Any other thoughts? I mean it is a bit of a pain to try every app one at a time but if its the only way.

Just that the way I use it now and the way I used it when I had my old HD is practically the same. Well almost identical. So if it stopped then shouldn't it stop now?

Does it have anything to do with the fact that this is I believe SATA and that (I don't think) was not?

[abhiroopb]

From the site I ran the smartmontools command and got this:

abhiroop@vanimo:~$ sudo smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sda

smartctl version 5.38 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0
Serial Number:    WD-WXE608KT0538
Firmware Version: 11.01A11
User Capacity:    320,072,933,376 bytes
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Tue Jul 29 22:06:25 2008 SGT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00)	Offline data collection activity
					was never started.
					Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)	The previous self-test routine completed
					without error or no self-test has ever 
					been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection: 		 (10800) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: 			 (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
					Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
					Suspend Offline collection upon new
					command.
					Offline surface scan supported.
					Self-test supported.
					Conveyance Self-test supported.
					Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)	Saves SMART data before entering
					power-saving mode.
					Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)	Error logging supported.
					General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time: 	 (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 ( 127) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities: 	       (0x303f)	SCT Status supported.
					SCT Feature Control supported.
					SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   189   184   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       1541
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       34
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       80
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0033   100   253   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       28
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       11
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       1522
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   101   091   000    Old_age   Always       -       46
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0009   100   253   051    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Aborted by host               90%         0         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

No idea what it means!

[JoneYee]

Does it have anything to do with the fact that this is I believe SATA and that (I don't think) was not?

From a HW perspective I doubt it. I run my primary client machine on a HP DV 1331se which has a SATA drive in it.

SATA spins at 7.2k RPMs max, and I would seriously doubt that the drive type is the problem.