Re: Recurrent disk activity every minute

[Mayuresh <mayuresh%acm.org@localhost>]

On Sat, Jun 10, 2017 at 07:17:10PM -0000, Michael van Elst wrote:
> If the load cycle count increases, then the hard drive is probably
> configured for power saving. This is a bad choice for a disk with
> read-write mounted filesystems. NetBSD doesn't configure the drive
> by itself, but the BIOS may.
> 
> If the load cycle does not increase, maybe the start/stop count or
> the number of calibration retries does?
> 
> The NetBSD atactl command can read SMART data, you don't need smartmontools
> just for that.

Thanks for introducing me to atactl. The Load Cycle Count does keep
increasing. I read it's the disk manufacturer's choice and many users are
annoyed by this.

I'll also check out bios, but I think there was nothing to control this
when I struggled with this before.

Mayuresh