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Questions tagged [hdparm]

69 questions
29
votes
2 answers

What do different values of hard drive's Advanced Power Management feature (hdparm -B) affect, except spin-down?

hdparm's -B parameter is documented as: Get/set Advanced Power Management feature, if the drive supports it. A low value means aggressive power management and a high value means better per‐ formance. Possible settings range from values 1…
Petr
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17
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1 answer

hdparm doesn't read SSD? HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

I'm trying to use hdparm to do secure erase of my 512GB SSD SK Hynix. SSD has Windows 10 installed in it. I boot Ubuntu from a usb flash drive. sudo fdisk -l I get a lot of different disks, turns out /dev/sda is my 8gb flash drive, not SSD. SSD is…
Jack
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16
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6 answers

hdparm error: SG_IO: bad/missing sense data

I'm trying hdparm in Kali Live to add a ATA password to my Micron M600 Self-encrypted SSD, I use: hdparm --security-set-pass PASSWORD sda But I get: sda: Issuing SECURITY_SET_PASS command, password="PASSWORD", user=user, mode=high SG_IO:…
Sam
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10
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2 answers

HDD Power-Up in Standby: prevent from spinning up

On my Linux Mint 17.1 system I am using a Western Digital WD20EZRX HDD for backup. To minimize power consumption and to extend drive endurance, I want the HDD to normally be in spun-down standby state, and to only spin up when explicitly…
Finwood
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9
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1 answer

hdparm vs /dev/zero in hdd erase

So, what is more secure and why? hdparm --security-erase-enhanced NULL /dev/sdX or dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx
user149770
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8
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1 answer

What is an alternative to Linux utility hdparm on Windows 8?

Is there a utility similar to hdparm that can be run natively on Windows 8?
PetaspeedBeaver
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7
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3 answers

How to unfreeze drive in Linux?

I run sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda results: Security: Master password revision code = [redacted just in case it's sensitive data] supported not enabled not locked frozen not expired: security count supported: enhanced erase My objective is to…
user138072
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6
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1 answer

Is the “idle3” timeout mess still relevant on Western Digital WD Blue hard drives from 2022?

THE QUESTION: Is the “idle3” timeout still relevant for 2022 Western Digital Blue hard drives, and specifically for their WD40EZAZ line? Or should I take hdparm -J reporting an invalid exchange as proof that the timer was removed and that the disks…
Gro-Tsen
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5
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2 answers

HDPARM Keeps giving Input/Output Error

I've been trying to set the password on my Seagate drive: sudo hdparm --user-master m --security-set-pass pwd /dev/sda I get Issuing SECURITY_SET_Pass command, password="pwd", user=master, mode=high SECURITY_SET_PASS: Input/output error Why do…
Glad
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5
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1 answer

Why is "hdparm -w" considered dangerous?

I have an old disk that often gets stuck in some form of loop, and often I need to perform a full reboot to get it "unstuck", whereupon I had found out about the hdparm -w command. However, its manpage lists this command as dangerous: -w Perform a…
nanofarad
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4
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4 answers

Safe to manually spin down hard drive with hdparm?

I have a laptop with a ssd for primary OS drive, and a large Spinning disk for storage. I currently have an alias I use for manually spinning down the drive when I'm not using it (after umount of course): sudo hdparm -y…
Shane
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4
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2 answers

How to set the spin down timeout on WD Green HDDs

My internal WD20EARS disk does not spin down autoamtically. I tried hdparm -S 1 (5 seconds), but nothing happens. I disabled the IntelliPower headparking with wdidle3 from the Ultimate Boot CD. hdparm -y spins down the disk. Setup is Archlinux on a…
ManuelSchneid3r
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4
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1 answer

How do hdparm's -S and -B options interact?

These two options seem confusing. For example: according to the man page -B 254 "does not permit spin-down". However, testing with -B 254 -S 1 the drive does spin down after 5 seconds. -B Query/set Advanced Power Management feature, if the drive…
user697683
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3
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1 answer

Using HDPARM to tune drives

Can HDPARM reallt be used to tune and enhance performance on drives? I've seen tutorials but does it really make a difference?
john math
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3
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2 answers

Putting an ATA storage device into PIO mode

I'm trying to do make the drive go into PIO mode with hdparm on Linux. hdparm -X pio0 /dev/sdX I have tried about 4-5 disks (PATA & SATA). I always get the same error: SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]: ... Ideas? Any other known working…
XXL
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