From: blymn@awadi.com.au (Brett Lymn) Subject: Re: could this be realized ?(Kernel-Extensions) Date: 01 Aug 1993 08:39:19 GMT
>>>>> On 30 Jul 93 16:14:49 GMT, higgins@sisley.uni-paderborn.de (Frank Westheider) said:
Frank> I am not a SCSI-Guru, so i ask in the Linux-Comunity, who is able to
Frank> manage such a Kernel-Extension, and if it is recommended to start/stop
Frank> the drives.
Not really recommended practice as it puts a lot of stress on the
drive starting up, have a look at the startup current for a hard-disk
and you will see that they are in the region of 3-4 times (or more)
that of the normal operating current. More current => more heat =>
more likely to fail. Then there is the danger of a head crash which
is more likely on power up/down because the heads have not reached
their flying height (ok, some hard disks lock the heads out of the way
on spin up but you still have some risks).
It begs the question: Why? do you begrudge the 10-15W for running the
disk? In a battery powered application this may be critical but I do
not think this is the case for you (portables with 2 scsi disks are
fairly rare in my experience).
Ponder the fact that most light bulbs die when you turn them on, the
analogy applies.