Mick wrote: > On Thursday, 2 January 2020 18:48:03 GMT Dale wrote: >> Ian Zimmerman wrote: >>> On 2020-01-01 18:09, Dale wrote: >>>> As some may recall, I have a 8TB external SATA hard drive that I do >>>> back ups on. Usually, I back up once a day, more often if >>>> needed. Usually I turn the power on, mount it, do the back ups, >>>> unmount and turn the power back off. Usually it is powered up for 5 >>>> minutes or so. When I unmount it tho, I sometimes notice it is still >>>> doing something. I can feel the mechanism for the heads moving. It has >>>> a slight vibration to it. Questions are, what is it doing and should >>>> I let it finish before powering it off? I'd assume that once it in >>>> unmounted, the copy process is done so the files are safe. I guess it >>>> is doing some sort of internal checks or something but I'm not sure. >>> I have observed the same thing. But in my case, I also disconnect the >>> _cable_ from the computer to the enclosure when I am done ... and still >>> the drive activity goes on. From that I conclude that it is the drive >>> circuitry itself doing some kind of internal housekeeping, and there is >>> no point in worrying about it because one would wait forever for it to >>> end. >> That's one thing that makes it unnervey. I'll put my hand around to the >> back and feel those little bumps. I wait until I think it is done but >> just as I'm about to power it off, it bumps again. It's so >> unpredictable, I never know if it is done doing its thing or not. Just >> like now, it's unmounted, did that during last reply, it hasn't did the >> bump thingy while reading your reply or me typing mine in so far. Now >> as soon as I reach around to turn it off, it'll likely do the bump thing >> again. lol > I suspect it is now reading your mind! Is this a case of AI?! > > LOL! > > >> One thing is for sure tho, if you unplug the cable, whatever it is >> doing, it's internal. Sort of hard for the puter to be doing something >> when it isn't connected. That narrows the options down a lot. That's a >> good piece of info there. >> >> Thanks. >> >> Dale >> >> :-) :-) > In case you missed it in a previous post - have you compiled CONFIG_DM_ZONED > in your kernel to see if its performance changes? > > https://zonedstorage.io/linux/config/ > > It's behaviour may not change whatsoever, if the drive only has an internal > (SMR firmware) data write mechanism. However, if the drive is exposing an > I/O > API to the OS, then you could well see a difference to how its data storage > bumps, spins and shakes as it flushes its journal and goes about its garbage > collection process when the Linux kernel 'talks' to it. >
It seems that is not enabled in my kernel. Symbol: DM_ZONED [=n] It took some effort to find and enable everything to get that but I finally found them all. It seems three things has to be enabled in order for that option to be visible. Then after that, make wouldn't work. I checked the gcc settings, emerged libtool and checked on everything else with no improvement. Then I copied the .config file to a safe spot and did a make clean. When I copied the file back and ran make again, it worked. No clue on what was up with that. You know my luck tho. ;-) I'll try to reboot the new kernel in a bit. It's building at the moment. Thanks for posting about this. I did not see it in other replies. I thought it might be in Rich's but didn't see it. The extra nudge was helpful. Dale :-) :-)
