On Thursday, 2 January 2020 00:09:14 GMT Dale wrote: > Howdy, > > As some may recall, I have a 8TB external SATA hard drive that I do back > ups on. Usually, I back up once a day, more often if needed. Usually I > turn the power on, mount it, do the back ups, unmount and turn the power > back off. Usually it is powered up for 5 minutes or so. When I unmount > it tho, I sometimes notice it is still doing something. I can feel the > mechanism for the heads moving. It has a slight vibration to it. > Questions are, what is it doing and should I let it finish before > powering it off? I'd assume that once it in unmounted, the copy process > is done so the files are safe. I guess it is doing some sort of > internal checks or something but I'm not sure.
There is some delay with data still in the buffers between rsync/cp/tar/what- ever saying it's finished on your terminal and the drive itself finishing storing the data on the platters. If you look at vmstat, or keep an eye on Gkrelm you'll see what I mean. Normally, if you try to unmount a drive while it is still being written to, the umount/udisks command will complain the drive is busy. > Is it safe to turn it off even tho it is doing whatever it is doing? > Should I wait? Does it matter? > > Thanks. > > Dale > > :-) :-) If you wait for a few seconds after the backup is completed before you unmount the drive, you should be OK. Although it may slow down or any LEDs flash less frequently the drive may not stop spinning, unless there is some power save process taking control of it. > P. S. Down to last router that was discussed in another thread so I > bought it while they had it. Price may go up if I didn't. Did more > research on old modem, it is risky to try to convert to AT&T. Some say > not possible. Right, ISP controlled firmware typically requires re-flashing the device with the new ISP's firmware version. In some cases even the boot code needs replacing. Should you flash the router with a wrong firmware build, you could sometimes derive a door stop without additional cost. In this case you'll need a JTAG and access to its circuit board with an OEM boot/firmware version to recover it. In most cases OEMs support lines will redirect you to your ISP, who run an overseas support line and will ask you to reboot your MSWindows PC ... O_o This is a reason I avoid these kind of routers as much as I can. -- Regards, Mick
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