<div dir="auto">Is your external HDS in an enclosure with a power adapter? I would plug it into a smart plug and use an app or a script to call an API to turn it on/off. </div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Nov 17, 2025 at 18:59 D. Hugh Redelmeier <<a href="mailto:hugh@mimosa.com">hugh@mimosa.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">I want to use a cheap external HDD for backups. I want the drive to be <br>
off when not in use but I don't want to be required to plug or unplug the <br>
drive to turn it on.<br>
<br>
Is there a way for a script to turn off a disk so it really is off enough <br>
and subsequently turn it on again?<br>
<br>
<br>
- consumer HDDs have ridiculously low power-on lifetimes, at least <br>
according to their specifications<br>
<br>
- so I want my backup software to power the drive on before use and <br>
off after use.<br>
<br>
- [may be relevant] Seagate external drive controllers have a flaw: to be <br>
fast, you want to use UAS (USB Attached SCSI) but the controller won't <br>
pass SAT commands in this mode. You need to tell the driver that the <br>
drive has a "quirk" to lock in usb-storage mode. <br>
<<a href="https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/SAT-with-UAS-Linux" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/SAT-with-UAS-Linux</a>><br>
<br>
Just unmounting all partitions of an HDD does not seem to cause it to spin <br>
down. The drive still makes noise and is warm, even hours later.<br>
<br>
Turning off the drive, using Gnome's Disks or (untested) udisksctl(1), <br>
does stop the drive. But I don't know how to subsequently turn it on via <br>
a program. For example, Gnome Disks doesn't see the drive once it has <br>
been turned off. The way I know to turn on the drive is to physically <br>
unplug the USB cable and plug it in again.<br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div></div>