Hello all,
I am just trying to get a little help with a problem I have been having of late. I have an external Seagate drive (not a FreeAgent), which spins down, but won't wake up. I have googled for answers, and tried everything from sdparm to writing udev rules, but nothing seems to be helping. The most I have accomplished is keeping the drive alive for 45 minutes or so before it fails to respond. What's more, it won't mount on boot-up.

I am wondering if this might be down to USB power management not playing nicely with the HD's power management. Is there any way to disable the USB power management??
Or is there something else that I am missing which might help?

Your help would be most appreciated.

You may be able to change the drive's behaviour with hdparm
Please see man hdparm there are many options, but -B and -C look applicable

1 members found this post helpful.

Tried hdparm. It fails with the message: Invalid Exchange...

I am at a loose end. I hear this is a common problem with Seagate external drives.