USB3 drive enclosures w/spin-down

[stevech]

I was blaming my Synology DSM software for not initiating a spin-down in long-idle USB3 drives. I tried three US3 to SATA drive interfaces... only one did the spin down...

Seagate branded enclosure with Seagate 2TB inside. Never spins down.

USB3 drive dock (drop-in the drive). Does time out/spin-down the 2TB above and a 1TB Hitachi.

USB3 adapter (no enclosure).. does not spin down.

I don't know if the spin-down that does occur was initiated by the NAS software or by the hardware in the drive enclosure/adapter. I suspect the latter. It's not the drive or drive config.

Under windows, on my ASUS motherboard PC, the drives spin down immediately when unmounted by user choice.

(I did look on the NAS vendor's web site- they only enclosures they list are few in number and apparently Taiwan-only brand names)

I want to buy another USB3 drive enclosure and spend $30 or less. And get one with "Green" power management to support spin-down. I cannot tell from the Newegg and Amazon product descriptions which ones do so. Any clue?

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
Looked up the Synology compatible enclosures? Some do sleep some don't.

 

[stevech]

Hi,
Looked up the Synology compatible enclosures? Some do sleep some don't.

Yes. below is what I said in my prior posting... hence the question here.

(I did look on the NAS vendor's web site- they only enclosures they list are few in number and apparently Taiwan-only brand names)

 

[RacerRon]

I had to change a setting in the Seagate firmware to get my expansion 3TB USB drive to spin down. The software utility was free on the Seagate web site but I do not remember the name and am not near my PC to look.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[stevech]

thanks, I thought of that. But the same Seagate drive that won't spin-down in a Seagate-branded USB3 enclosure, WILL spin-down in a different enclosure. So I didn't think I needed to fiddle with the drive.

What I don't know is how spin-down/power conservation is SUPPOSED to work:

1. Host Computer turns off USB port and drive / enclosure react by doing a spin-down. Also spin-down if drive is "ejected" by user command.

2. Enclosure's electronics time out inactivity and react by doing a spin-down.

3. Drive electronics time out inactivity and react by doing a spin-down.

 

[RacerRon]

I know that mine would not spin down when attached to my Linux based router (Asus n-66u with Merlin's firmware) or on windows 8 even when the spin down command was issued until it was enabled in the drive firmware. I now use it exclusively on the router but have set the inactive time to spin down the same on both drive and router. I may experiment and see exactly which one is in control but router logs appear to show it responds to the router issued commands.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2