Huh. I didn't know hdparm had that nice feature. Here's an example:
Code:
hdparm -C /dev/sda; hdparm -C /dev/sdb; hdparm -C /dev/sdc
/dev/sda:
drive state is: active/idle
/dev/sdb:
drive state is: standby
/dev/sdc:
drive state is: standby
Here's an example of code I use to spin down the 2nd and 3rd hard drives:
Code:
hdparm -S 23 -Y /dev/sdc; hdparm -S 23 -Y /dev/sdb
/dev/sdc:
setting standby to 23 (1 minutes + 55 seconds)
issuing sleep command
/dev/sdb:
setting standby to 23 (1 minutes + 55 seconds)
issuing sleep command
Personally, I would nest the symlink inside an auxiliary directory which is never regularly browsed to. For example, you might put it in /home/macko/Desktop/Links/ instead of putting it directly on the Desktop. Or within /home/macko/Documents/Links/ instead of directly in /home/macko/Documents.
Basically, file system browsers often peek just inside the link for some sort of .directory file or whatever. This
might not spin up the drive, if the necessary info is cached. But it's really annoying and hard to pin down the cause when that drive spins up for a nonobvious reason.