# error in automatic spin up with ext3

## FNX

Hello, 

I'm experiencing I/O errors when my external hard disk (GoFlex) wants to automatically spin up. I really want my disk to spin down when idle. But currently i have to remount the disk each time i want to use it. 

What can be done to get the filesystem wait for it before timing out and returning a read error?

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## eccerr0r

I have an external enclosure that spins down and spins back up without causing an error.  This is probably a hardware issue but I'm sure there may be a one-off kernel patch (would be below VFS I'd say) to fix this, I doubt anyone has such yet.

Is this connected via USB?

I would imagine eSATA should work just fine with spinup/spindown.  Not sure about 1394.

One additional thought - I'm hoping this is not bus powerred.  There's also a possibility on a bus-powered drive that the spin up glitches power to the drive enough that it confuses it, causing an error.  Need a better power source...

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## FNX

Yes, the disk is connected via USB and it has its own power adaptor from AC.

I wonder if another format like xfs or reiserfs will behave as the same way.

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## eccerr0r

I'd have to say at least reiserfs would act worse.  It seems a bit dodgy in my opinion when dealing with an unreliable disk.

Curious as to who made the USB chipset in the external drive?

I have a crappy Genesys Logic USB->PATA controller that would spin down (and one that wouldn't).  The one that does spin down does not cause disk access errors on ext3fs upon spinup, it actually patiently waits for it.  I haven't seen what my other USB->disk bridges would do though...

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