HDD spin down/stop

[Andre De Clercq]

Do PATA/SATA drives have internal structures which make it possible to stop
them bij SW, or is the HDD controller on the MB responsible for stopping the
HDD?

 

[Paul]

Do PATA/SATA drives have internal structures which make it possible to stop
them bij SW, or is the HDD controller on the MB responsible for stopping the
HDD?

You can get ATA/ATAPI specs here.

http://www.t13.org/FTPSite/Default.aspx

ftp://ftp.t13.org/docs2002/d1532v1r1a-ATA-ATAPI-7.pdf (a volume 1)
ftp://ftp.t13.org/docs2002/d1532v2r1a-ATA-ATAPI-7.pdf (a volume 2)

PDF page 158 of Volume 1, Table 18, has "Standby Timer" values.

PDF page 29 of Volume 1, defines "Power Management feature set".

- A Standby timer
- CHECK POWER MODE command
- IDLE command
- IDLE IMMEDIATE command
- SLEEP command
- STANDBY command
- STANDBY IMMEDIATE command

The disk can be commanded to do many things. The operating system can
load many of these features, when the drivers first initialize the drive.

Paul