Western Digital "My Book" - Questions

[andreas.keppler]

Hello!

I can´t find any information about the standby-mode of the Western
Digital My Book - harddrive!

Can it be turned off by software?

I could only find a lot of reviews talking about a standby-mode after 5
minutes!

But I don´t want to turn of the HD´s motor! (for a longer life of the
HD)


I also couldnt find any information about the automatic power-on-mode
of the HD!
Can the HD be configured this way that it doesnt power on every time
the computer boots?

And can it be turned off manually?


Thanks a lot,

Andy

 

[bxf]

Hello!

I can´t find any information about the standby-mode of the Western
Digital My Book - harddrive!

Can it be turned off by software?

Yes, but...

You can use "Safely Remove Hardware" or the Western Digital Spindown
Utility (download from WD site) to turn off the drive. Unfortunately,
neither of these will prevent the drive from powering up when you
reboot. If you use "safely Remove Hardware" or STOP with the Spindown
Utility, the drive will stay off until you unplug/replug the USB cable,
or until you hit the power button on the drive, or until you reboot.
You can also use the utility to put the drive into STANDBY, in which
case it spins down but it will automatically wake up when it is
referenced (e.g. Invoking Explorer).

I could only find a lot of reviews talking about a standby-mode after 5
minutes!

But I don´t want to turn of the HD´s motor! (for a longer life of the
HD)

For what it's worth, WD says that although spinning up and down
repeatedly DOES present the drive with greater wear and tear than if
it's continuously spinning, this is true only up to a point, and the
drive's design is such that it is expected to spin down several times a
day. I think I saw this somewhere in the WD FAQ.

I also couldnt find any information about the automatic power-on-mode
of the HD!
Can the HD be configured this way that it doesnt power on every time
the computer boots?

And can it be turned off manually?

The only thing I've noticed, that may be of some relevance, is this: if
under Device Manager > Disk Drives > Western Digital > Properties >
Policies you select "Optimize for quick removal", then, by definition,
you can remove your MYBOOK simply by hitting the power button on the
drive. If you do this, the drive will NOT power up when you RESTART
Windows. It will, however, power up if you shut down completely and
then reboot. Other than this, I find it necessary to pull out the USB
cable from my machine when I want the drive to stay OFF.

By the way, I understand that for USB drives there is no performance
sacrifice by selecting "Optimize for quick removal" as opposed to
"Optimize fo performance".

 

[Andreas Keppler]

For what it's worth, WD says that although spinning up and down
repeatedly DOES present the drive with greater wear and tear than if
it's continuously spinning, this is true only up to a point, and the
drive's design is such that it is expected to spin down several times a
day. I think I saw this somewhere in the WD FAQ.

First of all, thank you for your explanations!

Its good to hear that the spinning up and down doesnt harm the HD but
I think that there is a standard HD inside the mybook!
(Do you know how to open the plastic case?)


Yesterday I bought the 250GB-MyBook with USB2.0 and Firewire400 and
connected it via Firewire.

I am very satisfied with everything but I cant understand why WD
doesnt deliver a tool with which users can prevent the standbye-mode
or change the time for this mode!

Do you know a tool which sends (reads) a command to the HD every one
minute so it doesnt go in standby?


One more question: Do you know how the read the S.M.A.R.T.-Status via
Firewire/USB2.0? It seems that this isn´t possible! :-(


Andy

 

[bxf]

First of all, thank you for your explanations!

Its good to hear that the spinning up and down doesnt harm the HD but
I think that there is a standard HD inside the mybook!

It's not that I expect some "special" HD in the MYBOOK, its just that
WD are expressing their philosophy about wear and tear, to alleviate
concerns users may have.

(Do you know how to open the plastic case?)

I haven't tried.

Yesterday I bought the 250GB-MyBook with USB2.0 and Firewire400 and
connected it via Firewire.

I am very satisfied with everything but I cant understand why WD
doesnt deliver a tool with which users can prevent the standbye-mode
or change the time for this mode!

I think we are supposed to view this feature as a benefit, so there
would be no reason for us to turn it off. If you're concerned about the
drive spinning up and down repeatedly, and if you don't use the drive
except during specific activities, why not simply REMOVE it?

Do you know a tool which sends (reads) a command to the HD every one
minute so it doesnt go in standby?

Firstly, the drive goes into STANDBY after 10 minutes, so you wouldn't
have to access it every minute. You can use Control Panel > Schedule
Tasks to invoke, every 9 minutes, a dummy script that resides on your
MYBOOK. Although at first it looks as if one can't schedule a task to
run every n minutes, it can in fact be done, and on XP you will have
the opportunity to specify the interval as you define the task. Also,
you can look here (works on XP too):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/226795/EN-US/

I've just done the above, and my dummy script is in fact an empty file
I've named Dummy Access.bat. The only unpleasant side-effect is the
flashing of the Command Prompt screen every time the task is executed.
There may be a way to prevent this, but I don't know of one yet. Also,
you'll want to clear C:\Windows\SchedLgU.txt once in awhile (you'll
have to STOP the Task Scheduler to do this, and then restart it).

One more question: Do you know how the read the S.M.A.R.T.-Status via
Firewire/USB2.0? It seems that this isn´t possible! :-(

My MYBOOK included WD Diagnostics software, which enables me to view
the SMART data on the WD drive as well as my fixed HDD. Your drive is
"higher level" than mine (mine is the Essential, whereas you have the
Premium (USB & FW), I believe), so I'd be surprised if your package did
not include this software. In any event, I think it's available for
download from the WD site.

 

[bxf]

I've just done the above, and my dummy script is in fact an empty file
I've named Dummy Access.bat. The only unpleasant side-effect is the
flashing of the Command Prompt screen every time the task is executed.
There may be a way to prevent this, but I don't know of one yet.

It appears that if you give your empty file a VBS extension rather than
..BAT, there is no "flashing Command Prompt" screen.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

It's not that I expect some "special" HD in the MYBOOK, its just that
WD are expressing their philosophy about wear and tear, to alleviate
concerns users may have.


I haven't tried.


I think we are supposed to view this feature as a benefit, so there
would be no reason for us to turn it off. If you're concerned about the
drive spinning up and down repeatedly, and if you don't use the drive
except during specific activities, why not simply REMOVE it?


Firstly, the drive goes into STANDBY after 10 minutes, so you wouldn't
have to access it every minute. You can use Control Panel > Schedule
Tasks to invoke, every 9 minutes, a dummy script that resides on your
MYBOOK. Although at first it looks as if one can't schedule a task to
run every n minutes, it can in fact be done, and on XP you will have
the opportunity to specify the interval as you define the task. Also,
you can look here (works on XP too):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/226795/EN-US/

I've just done the above, and my dummy script is in fact an empty file
I've named Dummy Access.bat. The only unpleasant side-effect is the
flashing of the Command Prompt screen every time the task is executed.
There may be a way to prevent this, but I don't know of one yet. Also,
you'll want to clear C:\Windows\SchedLgU.txt once in awhile (you'll
have to STOP the Task Scheduler to do this, and then restart it).


My MYBOOK included WD Diagnostics software,

which enables me to view the SMART data on the WD drive

You might wanna tell babblebot I and babblebot II about it.
They repeatedly say that it can't be done.

 

[bxf]

You might wanna tell babblebot I and babblebot II about it.
They repeatedly say that it can't be done.

Unfortunately, I can't take a screenshot of the output, but I assure
"them" that it works - unless the utility is pulling numbers out of the
air.

The utility is called "Western Digital Data Lifeguard for Windows -
DLGDIAG for Windows". I suspect (not sure) that anybody can dowsnload
it from the WD site.

 

[bxf]

It appears that if you give your empty file a VBS extension rather than
.BAT, there is no "flashing Command Prompt" screen.

It appears that executing an empty script, even if it resides on the
USB drive, does not prevent it from spinning down after a few minutes.
I assume Windows must be caching the script or something, hence
avoiding an actual access to the drive.

I'm going to create a script that will allocate and write to a file on
the drive ("M" in my case), and it looks like this:

Option Explicit

Dim objFSO, objUSBFile

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objUSBFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile("M:\Dummy Access.txt", True)

objUSBFile.WriteLine("This is a dummy file")
objUSBFile.Close

Wscript.Quit

I'll create a Scheduled Task that will invoke this script every few
minutes, and I expect this should keep the drive active. I'll try it
tomorrow.

 

[craigm]

First of all, thank you for your explanations!

Its good to hear that the spinning up and down doesnt harm the HD but
I think that there is a standard HD inside the mybook!
(Do you know how to open the plastic case?)


Yesterday I bought the 250GB-MyBook with USB2.0 and Firewire400 and
connected it via Firewire.

I am very satisfied with everything but I cant understand why WD
doesnt deliver a tool with which users can prevent the standbye-mode
or change the time for this mode!

Do you know a tool which sends (reads) a command to the HD every one
minute so it doesnt go in standby?


One more question: Do you know how the read the S.M.A.R.T.-Status via
Firewire/USB2.0? It seems that this isn´t possible! :-(


Andy

For the benefit of those trying to help you....

If you let the drive spin down, how many times in a day would it have to
spin up as you access it?

Do you plan to keep it spinning 24 hours a day?

How long do you expect the drive to run before failing?

Have you considered that the spinning drive will be running much hotter than
if it is allowed to spin down?

Have you considered that the enclosure is already designed to give the best
reliability?

 

[bxf]

For the benefit of those trying to help you....

If you let the drive spin down, how many times in a day would it have to
spin up as you access it?

Do you plan to keep it spinning 24 hours a day?

How long do you expect the drive to run before failing?

Have you considered that the spinning drive will be running much hotter than
if it is allowed to spin down?

Have you considered that the enclosure is already designed to give the best
reliability?

These are all valid points, and correspond to WD's claims that it is
not necessarily preferable to run the drive continously as opposed to
letting it spin down occasionally. My own "problem" relates to the fact
that I use the drive only for specific purposes, but it spins up every
time I invoke Explorer, hence I usually just pull out the USB cable and
keep the drive off until I need it. It would be more convenient if I
could accomplish this with a switch, but, as I mentioned earlier, when
using the power button on the drive, the drive will power up when
rebooting after a complete shutdown.

My efforts regarding the script and Scheduled Task are more for
experimentation than anything else.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

This subject has been discussed before:
"Need prog. to prevent hdd going into idle (such as a perdiodic access?)"

 

[bxf]

This subject has been discussed before:
"Need prog. to prevent hdd going into idle (such as a perdiodic access?)"

Ah, yes. Discussed to death, from what I see.

 

[Andreas Keppler]

I think we are supposed to view this feature as a benefit, so there
would be no reason for us to turn it off. If you're concerned about the
drive spinning up and down repeatedly, and if you don't use the drive
except during specific activities, why not simply REMOVE it?

This would be a good way if I wouldnt use the MyBook as an
expansion of my very small internal Notebook-HD at home!

Firstly, the drive goes into STANDBY after 10 minutes, so you wouldn't
have to access it every minute. You can use Control Panel > Schedule

....

Thank you, I will try this!

BTW: Who puts the HD in standby-mode? A driver (software) or the
hardware-controller in the "MyBook"?

My MYBOOK included WD Diagnostics software, which enables me to view
the SMART data on the WD drive as well as my fixed HDD. Your drive is
"higher level" than mine (mine is the Essential, whereas you have the
Premium (USB & FW), I believe), so I'd be surprised if your package did
not include this software. In any event, I think it's available for
download from the WD site.

Yes, I have the Premium-Edition and also got the software with the
package. But you cant read the S.M.A.R.T-Status via Firewire!

With the WD-Diagnostics-Software I also can read the Smart-Status of
my internal Samsung-Drive (Notebook) but not the Smart-Status of my
mybook.

I will try tomorrow via USB1.1 (dont have USB2.0 on the notebook at
home at which I am using the Mybook!)

Maybe the Smart-Status can be read by USB!
(that it cant be read via Firewire is a known issue like I can see in
a lot of german newsgroups here...)


Andy

 

[Andreas Keppler]

I'm going to create a script that will allocate and write to a file on
the drive ("M" in my case), and it looks like this:

Option Explicit

Dim objFSO, objUSBFile

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objUSBFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile("M:\Dummy Access.txt", True)

objUSBFile.WriteLine("This is a dummy file")
objUSBFile.Close

Wscript.Quit

I'll create a Scheduled Task that will invoke this script every few
minutes, and I expect this should keep the drive active. I'll try it
tomorrow.

Thanks a lot!


Andy

 

[Andreas Keppler]

For the benefit of those trying to help you....

If you let the drive spin down, how many times in a day would it have to
spin up as you access it?

20 to 30 times a day!

Do you plan to keep it spinning 24 hours a day?

No, about 10 to 15 hours a day.

How long do you expect the drive to run before failing?

With spinning down and up 30 times a day I dont think that a WD
will run longer than one year.....

Have you considered that the spinning drive will be running much hotter than
if it is allowed to spin down?

yes, but spinning down and up is much worse for a HD than running
continously.



Andy

 

[Andreas Keppler]

My own "problem" relates to the fact
that I use the drive only for specific purposes, but it spins up every
time I invoke Explorer,

this is annoying to me too after working with the mybook for a few
days now!


Andy

 

[bxf]

Well Andreas, the script I have above works in stopping the drive from
spinning down. You can just save it somewhere (change the "M" to the
appropriate drive letter) and set up a scheduled task to run it every
nine minutes.

WD emphatically says that there is no way to stop the spin-down
function. For this, and other info, you may want to go to the WD site
Support > FAQ and do a search using the keywords SMART POWER - some
interesting stuff there, including instructions on how to open up the
MYBOOK case.

 

[Andreas Keppler]

Unfortunately, I can't take a screenshot of the output, but I assure
"them" that it works - unless the utility is pulling numbers out of the
air.

The utility is called "Western Digital Data Lifeguard for Windows -
DLGDIAG for Windows". I suspect (not sure) that anybody can dowsnload
it from the WD site.

Bill was right! Even if I couldn believe it!

I tried several times to read the SMART-status of my "my book pro"
(USB2.0 and Firewire400) with a Firewire-Connection and it didnt work.

After that I searched a lot at google-groups and found a lot of
postings reporting that the IDE-Commands cant be sent through Firewire
or some Controllers.

Now I connected my "mybook" with USB1.1 (dont have USB 2.0) and it
works:

http://i11.tinypic.com/2hfo1s7.gif



With a firewire-Connection to my mybook the Mybook didnt appear at
"physical devices" and I couldnt scan it.

But if I connect the mybook after booting it appears, even if the
SMART-Mode cant be read at once.

http://i11.tinypic.com/2yvus02.gif



But I can start a Smart-Scan with a pleasing result


http://i11.tinypic.com/44unamo.gif




Andy

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Bill was right! Even if I couldn believe it!

I tried several times to read the SMART-status of my "my book pro"
(USB2.0 and Firewire400) with a Firewire-Connection and it didnt work.

After that I searched a lot at google-groups and found a lot of postings
reporting that the IDE-Commands cant be sent through Firewire

That's not my impression from this group. That would apply to USB.

or some Controllers.

Likely the latter. I believe the Firewire interface has a better defined
software interface for the Firewire "Tailgate" ( 1394 to IDE bridge).
http://www.t13.org/project/d1248r4-1394-Tailgate.pdf

" 1 Scope
This standard specifies the protocol for passing ATA and ATAPI
commands over the 1394 bus. It provides a common attachment
interface for systems manufacturers, system integrators, soft-
ware suppliers, and suppliers of intelligent storage devices. "

I'm not aware of any similar specification for an USB bus tailgate.

Now I connected my "mybook" with USB1.1 (dont have USB 2.0) and it
works:

http://i11.tinypic.com/2hfo1s7.gif


With a firewire-Connection to my mybook the Mybook didnt appear at
"physical devices" and I couldnt scan it.

But if I connect the mybook after booting it appears, even if the
SMART-Mode cant be read at once.

http://i11.tinypic.com/2yvus02.gif

But I can start a Smart-Scan with a pleasing result

http://i11.tinypic.com/44unamo.gif

Unfortunately it says "SMART Status: Not Available"

 

[Andreas Keppler]

-------------
Option Explicit

Dim objFSO, objUSBFile

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objUSBFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile("M:\Dummy Access.txt", True)

objUSBFile.WriteLine("This is a dummy file")
objUSBFile.Close

Wscript.Quit
----------------

I'll create a Scheduled Task that will invoke this script every few
minutes, and I expect this should keep the drive active. I'll try it
tomorrow.

This script doesnt run here even if I change your drive "M" to "G".
(my mybook is "G")


I saved the script as "nostandby.vbs" and created a scheduled Task.

Every time XP starts the script, XP says that it couldnt execute the
script cause of entering the wrong password or Username!
(but the password I used is the same I need for logging into XP!)

If I dont provide a password and start the script XP complains about
not using a password in the scheduled task!

Maybe it was wrong that I used the extension .vbs!
I dont know, I am not a programmer!

I tried with no extension but the problem remains the same!

Hope you can help me!

Thanks a lot!


Andy