HDD Idle

  • Some external hard disks like my old Toshiba Canvio Basics auto spin down themselves and there is no need to do anything, but others won't as I just found and need a little help.

    As Mr. chewitt succintly pointed out to use hd-idle, installing the virtual.system-tools addon, to start hd-idle edit the system file: /storage/.config/autostart.sh (so that the needed command is executed after every boot)

    Assuming your disk is /dev/sda, (check yours with df or mount command) and want to spin it down after 900 seconds, add the following:

    Code
    (  /storage/.kodi/addons/virtual.system-tools/bin/hd-idle -a sda -i 900 -l /storage/.kodi/temp/hd-idle.log)&

    Then reboot (or execute the line at the command prompt). Check that your disk is actually spun down as with some may not work.

    Honestly can't believe that this still isn't an standard GUI option, forcing users to edit system files for common place things like this. And that the only near (non working) solution given in 2 years is this thread. Hope that helps future users.