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HDD spin down on a media server?

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bozrdang

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 3, 2004
Messages
89
I have a media server (movies only) consisting of 7 Maxtgor 200GB drives along with 1 (soon to be 2+) WD 320GB drives. This serves two Xboxes running XBMC and is on 24/7. I have some questions:

1. Is it a good idea to spin down the drives? Not looking for rivalry here, just wondering if there's a negative I don't see (aside from initial access time). Obviously, most of these drives don't need to do anything most of time. I assume you enable this under Control Panel\Power Options\"Turn off hard disks"? If so, does that also spin down the drives connected to add-in cards?

2. The drives are configured as JBOD. No RAID here and because there's only 2 Xboxes, only two drives would ever need to serve data at the same time. Does this mean I can get away with a smaller power supply than if it useed RAID? I curretnly have an Antec 420W and everything is OK, but I'm leary of adding 1-2 more drives and pushing things. I don't want to buy some huge PS if a smaller one will be OK with most of the drives inactive (spun down?).
 
1) Probably not. You'll have to defrag the disks to get more assurance that only two will spin up at a time, and even then it's not a given. And spinning down and up is more wear and tear than just spinning; my usual guestimate is 6 hours of spin = one spin down/up.

2) Nope. Even if you decide to let all the drives spin down, if you should happen to spin up all the disks at once, you can still kill the power supply pretty quickly. 7 drives * 2A each on startup = 200 watts. That could overload the PSU and cause an eventual failure. And a more powerful unit will deliver cleaner power. It's working so far, of course, but if you're looking for something to upgrade on it that'd be a good place to start.

 
You'll have to defrag the disks to get more assurance that only two will spin up at a time, and even then it's not a given.
Click to expand...

Why? Why will defrag help assure only two spin up at a time? Why would more than two drives ever be running (aside from the servers C:\ drive)?

my usual guestimate is 6 hours of spin = one spin down/up.
Click to expand...

Based on what?

f you should happen to spin up all the disks at once, you can still kill the power supply pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

Why would all of them spin up at once?

7 drives * 2A each on startup = 200 watts
Click to expand...

That's less than half the rating of my psu and the rest of the system is tame (1.7 T-bird, 512 RAM, onboard video & sound, NIC, and 2 IDE controller cards) .

Not trying to argue here, just wondering.
 
bozrdang said:
Why? Why will defrag help assure only two spin up at a time? Why would more than two drives ever be running (aside from the servers C:\ drive)?
Click to expand...
Because the actual files are scattered over the drive, aka fragmented. Thus, to redistribute them, you have to access all the disks.
bozrdang said:
Based on what?
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I completely made up that number. That's all. I couldn't find any data on how bad it actually is in ten minutes of searching, so I made some up ;)
bozrdang said:
Why would all of them spin up at once?
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Oh, I dunno. Booting, maybe :p I'm not sure how the MFT is stored on NTFS, it might tend to force the first disk to spin up often. And if the data is fragmented, like I said, any disks it's on will have to spin up. Windows might decide that if one drive is spinning they all have to be spinning, since they're all in the same array.
bozrdang said:
That's less than half the rating of my psu and the rest of the system is tame (1.7 T-bird, 512 RAM, onboard video & sound, NIC, and 2 IDE controller cards) .

Not trying to argue here, just wondering.
Click to expand...
Actually, probably not. Not all of the power supply can be dedicated to 12V; you need 5v to power the CPU, 3.3 for the memory, more for the motherboard, fans, ...

Can you link your power supply? I can't find a 420W Antec.

 
unhappy_mage said:
And if the data is fragmented, like I said, any disks it's on will have to spin up. Windows might decide that if one drive is spinning they all have to be spinning, since they're all in the same array.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking.

Also, what happens when a JBOD array looses a drive? Is rebuild possible? I know not of the lost drive, butare the others easily recoverable?
 
Sorry for the confusion. I was using the term JBOD incorrectly. What I mean is that all the drives are independent volumes with seperate drive letters. I thought that's what JBOD was, but a google search has shown me I was wrong. With that in mind I hope my questions and responses make more sense now.

So, what would you suggest now?
 
Well if you aren't running a JBOD and you are using windows power management, then of corse you will use less power when the rig is on, but there will always be the startup issue.

Some motherboards and Drive controllers allow a staggered start-up option to alliviate strain on the PSU during boot. I would enable that if I were you, just to be on the safe side.

BTW, anyone know of a way to manage power where your primary disk C: can be always powered on, but your Data drives spin down? Windows Power Management only allows all or non from what I can see.
 
I would be careful, I just had a Antec SP-350 w/ 21a on ther 12v die on me from my knowledge to some sort of heat stroke so to say..

It always ran hot, and by just getting a new CPU/mobo and a few new components in my system, it started showing signs of failure. Not to say Antecs are bad, but they do run hot and are more prone to instability under higher loads especially after many years.

I wouldnt want you to have corrupt data as my HD required a reinstall which was possibly caused by the PSU.
 
If I decide to add a second PS, is it OK to just add a second one independently inside the same chasis? I am getting a Cooler Master Stacker STC-T01 and it has mounting for two PS's, but I don't know how to solder, and the instructins I've seen for wiring 2 power supplies together seems over my head. Would it be OK to just have the second PS connected to about 8 hard drives and be independent of the main PS?
 
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