HDD shutdown behaviour (Linux Lite vs MX)

Hardware
1

Hi all, :waving_hand:

I have a possibly very curious question regarding the actuator of my hard disk drive (HDD) in my dual boot setup (Linux Lite and MX Linux).

Is it possible at all that Linux Lite and MX treat my external HDD differently in any way when it comes to shutting down (power off) the system ?

IĀ“m almost inclined to think so. :thinking:

HereĀ“s some background information about my setup:

  • dual boot Linux Lite (older system) and MX Linux (freshly installed).

  • MBR setup.

  • Both are installed on an external HDD (Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Elements 25A2), connected to my PC Lenovo-H520e via USB 2.0, and I boot my OSĀ“es from there. Both systems are using ext3.

  • desktop environment in both systems is Xfce and both use systemd.

And hereĀ“s some further information about my hardware setup:

  • my external HDD has a power supply of its own. I switch it on manually (by a power strip with on/off switch).

  • As soon as power is established the HDD starts spinning.

  • After that I power on the PC (Lenovo H520e) and then start my session.

  • Before shutting down the PC I set the HDD to:
    sudo hdparm -S 120 /dev/sdb

  • So although the PC is already in shutdown state the HDD keeps spinning for ten minutes. ThatĀ“s how itĀ“s meant to be.
    After that it stops spinning and I can power off the HDDĀ“s power supply.

Well, my research led me to the following:

  • An actuator in a hard disk drive (HDD) is a mechanical component that moves the read/write heads across the spinning disks to access data.

  • A very quiet clicking sound from an external HDD when shutting down is typically normal, as it often indicates the hard driveā€™s head is parking.
    -This sound is likely the read-head parkingā€”moving to a safe ā€œlanding zoneā€ā€”as it shuts down

  • Single, Soft Sound: It happens exactly once, just as the computer shuts off.

  • Parked Mechanism: Modern drives unload the read-head from the platter onto a ramp, which can produce a single clicking or tapping noise.

So, after having gathered this information my question is:

Is it possible that the quiet clicking sound from the external HDD which I hear is slightly louder when shutting down MX than it is when shutting down Linux Lite :red_question_mark:

In fact itĀ“s a rather gentle noise, not really hard clicking sound, more of a slight, gently whirring sound. Very short, just a fracture of a second.

I donĀ“t mean the hard clicking sound it produces should the power suddenly go off unexpectedly.

The performance of the HDD is fine. Nothing to complain about.

Just to be clear: I can hear the sound in question on Linux Lite as well (as part of the shutting down process), but it definitively is louder in MX than in Linux Lite. Just a bit louder, but I can hear the difference.

So once again my question:

Is it possible at all that Linux Lite and MX treat my external HDD differently in any way when it comes to shutting down (power off) the system?

Thanks a lot in advance. :heart:

Many greetings from Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

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2

Hi Rosika,

I am at a lost to even try to answer this question. From what I have read on the web the parking the heads of a HDD should no longer be a concern. Even after a power lost, the HDD will park the heads before a complete shutdown of the disk.

But your procedure does not hurt a thing and may be a good path of caution.

I submitted your question to Co-pilot and the short answer was ā€œyesā€ the two different Linux distros can shut down the external HDD differently. This ā€œcan produce a slightly different headā€‘parking sound.ā€

A more detail explanation from Co-pilot was;

"MX Linux and Linux Lite ship with different:

udev rules

udisks2 settings

powerā€‘management defaults

USB autosuspend behavior

These can affect:

when the drive receives a STOP UNIT command

whether the drive is told to flush cache before stopping

whether the USB bridge is powered down earlier or later

A slightly different timing can change the sound of the head parking."

It went on to said maybe the two different kernels could be the cause or even MX may apply itā€™s own power management after the hdparm command was issued.

I can message you a link of all the output I got if you like.

Hope this helps.
Howard

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3

Hi Rosika,
I think Howard has answered your question .
It may be interesting next time you use Clonezilla, to listen when it shuts down. Clonezilla live is Debian. Clonezilla usually does everything comprehensively.

Regards
Neville

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