On 09/01/10 00:25, Rafael Beraldo wrote:
The thing is, 128 keeps the hard disc spinning down a lot. In fact, 254 is quite noiseless, but as from 253 the clicking sound returns. I read this bug page [3] but found nothing new. It is worth remembering that, sometimes, when I'm watching a movie or TV show with mplayer, it stops for less than I second, then I hear the disc spinning faster and the video continues.
Some hard drives, such as yours, unfortunately don't have an intermediate setting. The hdparm -B values aren't in practice standardized.
So, how did you guys set the power manager with hdparm in your laptops? Does anybody else have this problem? Since I move my netbook often, should I set it to 128 even if it spins down more than four times a minute?
Depends whether you want your netbook to break (A) when you drop it or (B) after e.g. three years (or however long, depending on the frequency, more clicks = less lifetime). Some disks have sudden acceleration sensors that will also try to park the disk head when the disk feels itself being thrown across the room, making break-when-you-drop-it somewhat less likely. Since you have audible clicks, this might also weigh in favor of avoiding the clicks, if the noise bothers you or others...
-Isaac
