Idle time on USB drives with WD Green

[Tom Del Rosso]

Any way to extend the timeout on the WD Elements USB boxes with EARS or EADS
drives?

WD website says no and support says "Huh?" but hoping there is some way.

 

[GMAN]

Any way to extend the timeout on the WD Elements USB boxes with EARS or EADS
drives?

WD website says no and support says "Huh?" but hoping there is some way.

Download WDIDLE3 , it can be found here.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=609&sid=113


Ignore that it says its only for those specific drives. It works with all of
the green drives from WD.

Follow these instructions, if you want, you can use a bootable floppy instead
of the USB stick method.

http://forums.ncix.com/forums/topic.php?id=2278208

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

Download WDIDLE3 , it can be found here.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=609&sid=113


Ignore that it says its only for those specific drives. It works with
all of the green drives from WD.

Follow these instructions, if you want, you can use a bootable floppy
instead of the USB stick method.

http://forums.ncix.com/forums/topic.php?id=2278208

I know the utility, but it runs under DOS* so it can't access green drives
inside of a USB enclosure.

* (Why does WD even have a DOS compiler anymore?)

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

First head over here......
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=609&sid=113

...and get....
wdidle3_1_05.zip

[snip]

The question is about USB drives.

I have that utility already, but how is that going to work on a USB drive,
when it runs under DOS from a boot floppy.

WD puts green drives in most or all of their USB line.

 

[Arno]

First head over here......
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=609&sid=113

...and get....
wdidle3_1_05.zip

[snip]

The question is about USB drives.

I have that utility already, but how is that going to work on a USB drive,
when it runs under DOS from a boot floppy.

WD puts green drives in most or all of their USB line.

You can try http://idle3-tools.sourceforge.net/
It is a Linux re-implementation of wdidle3 and may be
able to fix the drive over USB.

Other than that, opening the enclosure and connecting the
drive directly may be necessary.

Arno

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

I have that utility already, but how is that going to work on a USB drive,
when it runs under DOS from a boot floppy.

There are USB drivers available for DOS, but you would be unwise to try
and use them for this task. You'd be better off taking the drive out of
the external enclosure and temporarily attaching it directly to a PC
motherboard.