[SOLVED] Hard Drive click/read

[Mr Rough]

I've searched all over for my specific issue and haven't found anything yet.

Essentially my harddrive sounds like it is reading briefly every second or so, not quite a click but maybe a quick spinup or some such. Reading online I believe it is probably the power management on the drive.

Unfortunately hdparm doesn't appear to work for me so I'm out of ideas.

Here is a quick rundown of what I've done:

Hardware Info:
---


kirk@Rosemary:~$ sudo lshw -businfo -C disk
Bus info Device Class Description
================================================== ====
scsi@0:0.0.0 /dev/cdrom1 disk DVDRAM GSA-H42N
/dev/cdrom1 disk
scsi@2:0.0.0 /dev/sda disk 251GB WDC WD2500YS-01S
scsi@7:0.0.0 /dev/sdb disk 251GB WDC WD2500YS-01S



OS (Ubuntu 8.04)
---


kirk@Rosemary:~$ uname -a
Linux Rosemary 2.6.24-19-generic #1 SMP Wed Aug 20 22:56:21 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux


hdparm
---

kirk@Rosemary:~$ sudo hdparm /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
IO_support = 0 (default)
16-bit)
HDIO_GET_UNMASKINTR failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
HDIO_GET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
HDIO_GET_KEEPSETTINGS failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 30515/255/63, sectors = 490234752, start = 0




kirk@Rosemary:~$ sudo hdparm /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:
IO_support = 0 (default)
16-bit)
HDIO_GET_UNMASKINTR failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
HDIO_GET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
HDIO_GET_KEEPSETTINGS failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 30515/255/63, sectors = 490234752, start = 0


Disable power management
---


kirk@Rosemary:~$ sudo hdparm /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:
IO_support = 0 (default)
16-bit)
HDIO_GET_UNMASKINTR failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
HDIO_GET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
HDIO_GET_KEEPSETTINGS failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 30515/255/63, sectors = 490234752, start = 0




kirk@Rosemary:~$ sudo hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error




kirk@Rosemary:~$ sudo hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:
setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error


I'm out of ideas. I've been using Windows because this doesn't happen there and I'm concerned for my hardware.

Does anyone have an idea about this or how to fix this issue? Any help is appreciated. Thank you for your time.

[Mr Rough]

Shameful bump :(

[Mr Rough]

Well I figured out the issue, just in case someone else comes across this bizarre issue.

I did a ps -ax and noticed these:



5408 ? S 0:00 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/sdc (every 2 sec)
5410 ? S 0:00 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/sdd (every 2 sec)
5412 ? S 0:00 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/sde (every 2 sec)
5414 ? S 0:00 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/sdf (every 2 sec)
5417 ? S 0:00 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/scd0 (every 2 sec)


My system does a read every two seconds and I figured it out. I unplugged a memory card reader and the sound stopped. In fact my system is way more responsive now.

That hounded me for months. Seems like a bug but at least it is fixed and it isn't hard drive related.