Hacking Hard Drive Sleeping

[Venko]

I have a Buffalo DriveStation™ TurboUSB with Power Saving Mode (link). I've checked the wiki (which has unfortunately been down for a while now) and this was reported to work fine with the USB loader. However when playing games it tends to go to sleep then wake up a second later causing the game to freeze and me to have to start again. There doesn't appear to be any pattern with this other than that it will happen at some point (sometimes 5 minutes into the game, sometimes an hour).

I've downloaded the applications on the hard drive's website and tried:[*]Disabling the power saving settings[*]Setting power saving to sleep after an hour of inactivityNeither of those solve the problem. I do not get this problem when plugged into my laptop but it is not related to any Buffalo software because I used the applications under Windows and normally run Ubuntu GNU/Linux on my laptop. I've also tried hdparm but it seems the drive doesn't use standard drive spindown settings so I can't manage the power saving feature with it.

My only conclusion is that it's a problem with the USB loader software as the problem does not occur with my laptop or any of my friend's computers. Is there any chance someone with knowledge of the USB loader's internals can take a look at this and point me in the right direction or perhaps solve the problem with the loader? I'm happy to assist by testing adaptions with my hard drive + Wii.

 

[dlxowhd]

i was also gonna get the buffalo 2.5" 500gb one for usbloader (was on sale) but my friend got it first and it had the same problem you are talking about so i decided to go with something else and it has been great.
my buddy also returned the buffalo and exchange it.. now all is well.

 

[hdhacker]

My only conclusion is that it's a problem with the USB loader software as the problem does not occur with my laptop or any of my friend's computers. Is there any chance someone with knowledge of the USB loader's internals can take a look at this and point me in the right direction or perhaps solve the problem with the loader? I'm happy to assist by testing adaptions with my hard drive + Wii.

It's not the loader since other people aren't having the same problems. Question: If you set the spindown to be off, disconnect the drive from your PC, then reconnect it, does the setting remain or does it need to be set again? Perhaps the setting is getting lost when it's disconnected from the PC?

 

[Venko]

My only conclusion is that it's a problem with the USB loader software as the problem does not occur with my laptop or any of my friend's computers. Is there any chance someone with knowledge of the USB loader's internals can take a look at this and point me in the right direction or perhaps solve the problem with the loader? I'm happy to assist by testing adaptions with my hard drive + Wii.

It's not the loader since other people aren't having the same problems. Question: If you set the spindown to be off, disconnect the drive from your PC, then reconnect it, does the setting remain or does it need to be set again? Perhaps the setting is getting lost when it's disconnected from the PC?

Yes, the setting remains. I have to insist that this is a problem with the loader as it doesn't occur on either Windows or GNU/Linux. Unfortunately I have no understanding of how the process works otherwise I'd attempt to modify the loader myself.

What drive can lots of people recommend for use with the USB loader? I use my Buffalo drive for other things so could always buy a 200GB drive for the Wii but don't want to have similar problems. Thus I would appreciate it if a widely used and fully supported HDD could be referenced here. Thanks.

 

[hdhacker]

My only conclusion is that it's a problem with the USB loader software as the problem does not occur with my laptop or any of my friend's computers. Is there any chance someone with knowledge of the USB loader's internals can take a look at this and point me in the right direction or perhaps solve the problem with the loader? I'm happy to assist by testing adaptions with my hard drive + Wii.

It's not the loader since other people aren't having the same problems. Question: If you set the spindown to be off, disconnect the drive from your PC, then reconnect it, does the setting remain or does it need to be set again? Perhaps the setting is getting lost when it's disconnected from the PC?

Yes, the setting remains. I have to insist that this is a problem with the loader as it doesn't occur on either Windows or GNU/Linux. Unfortunately I have no understanding of how the process works otherwise I'd attempt to modify the loader myself.

What drive can lots of people recommend for use with the USB loader? I use my Buffalo drive for other things so could always buy a 200GB drive for the Wii but don't want to have similar problems. Thus I would appreciate it if a widely used and fully supported HDD could be referenced here. Thanks.

Seagate FreeAgent Go if you want small and USB powered.

 

[denpanosekai]

God, I was JUST about to buy the drive when I saw this thread. Has no one found a solution for it? Why was it marked as working on the Wiki? and what the HELL is up with the wiki anyway???

 

[mickthestud]

just go with the western digital my passport it works flawleessly no spin down issues whatsoever , its relatively cheep as an added bonus it comes in white to match your wii..

 

[Venko]

God, I was JUST about to buy the drive when I saw this thread. Has no one found a solution for it? Why was it marked as working on the Wiki? and what the HELL is up with the wiki anyway???

Exactly the reason why I'm sceptic about any hard drive listed on the wiki page as a replacement for the one I'm currently using. Any of them could have this problem and the fact that it's gone unreported until now is really scary. My guess is that each person tried the HDD with their Wii and then added it to the wiki. Later when they realised it goes to sleep they didn't clean up their mess from the wiki page.

I've no idea where the wiki is but it's very frustrating with it being down for so long

QUOTE(mickthestud @ May 10 2009, 02:25 AM) just go with the western digital my passport it works flawleessly no spin down issues whatsoever , its relatively cheep as an added bonus it comes in white to match your wii..

That's odd. The western digital is the same price as the Seagate FreeAgent Go on Amazon.

 

[hdhacker]

That's odd. The western digital is the same price as the Seagate FreeAgent Go on Amazon.

And the Seagate has a 5 year warranty vs. a 3 year for the WD. My WD Passport Essentials did have a spindown issue and I had to open it up to fix it. There's no reason in hell you should take a chance with the WD.

 

[dlxowhd]

there have been countless reports of wd passport essentials spindown issues... and even youtube videos on how to fix them (you have to open your drive up).

 

[Venko]

there have been countless reports of wd passport essentials spindown issues... and even youtube videos on how to fix them (you have to open your drive up).

Sounds like a pretty big risk to me. I think I'll go with...

QUOTE(Venko @ May 9 2009, 10:36 PM) That's odd. The western digital is the same price as the Seagate FreeAgent Go on Amazon.

And the Seagate has a 5 year warranty vs. a 3 year for the WD. My WD Passport Essentials did have a spindown issue and I had to open it up to fix it. There's no reason in hell you should take a chance with the WD.

..the Seagate 320GB FreeAgent Go Portable Blue as they're the same price, it has a longer warranty and should work out of the box. Thanks for your help, everyone

 

[mestapho]

there have been countless reports of wd passport essentials spindown issues... and even youtube videos on how to fix them (you have to open your drive up).

Only on drives larger than 320 GB. The smaller drives work flawlessly straight from the box.

 

[Bladexdsl]

give it some pep pills

 

[Venko]

there have been countless reports of wd passport essentials spindown issues... and even youtube videos on how to fix them (you have to open your drive up).

Only on drives larger than 320 GB. The smaller drives work flawlessly straight from the box.

Can someone confirm that only happens with WD? The Seagate 320GB FreeAgent Go Portable Blue USB 2.0 that I'm going to buy will work fine, right?

 

[Bladexdsl]

i wouldn't recommend to buy any WD drives. some work and some don't and you can't tell which one your going to get before you buy it.

 

[hdhacker]

Can someone confirm that only happens with WD? The Seagate 320GB FreeAgent Go Portable Blue USB 2.0 that I'm going to buy will work fine, right?

The issue exists with ALL hard drives. The difference is that most Seagate and Maxtor drives can be fixed very easily by running a utility that turns off the spindown feature. So yes, it will work fine assuming you configure it to not go to sleep.

 

[Venko]

OK. Thank you. I sure hope this works as £65 is a lot of money for me lol.

[edit] Seems there's a problem with the Seagate FreeAgent Go after all. Take a look here: http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/index.php/USB...lity_List#320GB

 

[denpanosekai]

Yeah, wow. I am totally confused as to which drive I should buy now. I absolutely want one that's self-powered.

 

[manias]

Yeah, wow. I am totally confused as to which drive I should buy now. I absolutely want one that's self-powered.

why are you confused? The 100% best option is stillll the seagate freeagent go drives.. 320gb for example.. usb powered, sleep mode OFF, etc. Seagate is the ONLY one with a direct tool that works thru usb mode!

 

[Venko]

Yeah, wow. I am totally confused as to which drive I should buy now. I absolutely want one that's self-powered.
why are you confused? The 100% best option is stillll the seagate freeagent go drives.. 320gb for example.. usb powered, sleep mode OFF, etc. Seagate is the ONLY one with a direct tool that works thru usb mode!


The wiki page says that for the suggested drive, and I quote:
QUOTE

Only works if the whole drive is formatted in FAT32 by a 3rd party app(Fat32Format), and then WBFS is installed from the pc as well. In order for the loader to see your partition, hook up the USB but leave the drive unplugged. Boot up the wii and plug in the drive in the HBC. The previously reported issue was incorrect, as long as you follow this process you can also connect the drive to a Vista pc to add/delete isos. Update!!! Drive appears to go to 'sleep' during some games (even with sleep mode set to never and using hdparm) creating black screen, thus some causing some games to crash.