USB drive enclosures may force hard drives to sleep
A 2 TB WD Red is being used over USB with a small always-on server. The needed device is a 3.5-inch or dock that does not force the drive to stop spinning every 15 to 20 minutes. It should also pass SMART health data correctly and ideally follow Linux power-management .
An using a JMicron JMS551 chip appeared as UAS, but the drive still stopped every 15 to 20 minutes and then started again soon after. Over about two weeks of intermittent use, the drive’s start-stop count rose by about 100. A second dock using a JMicron JMS561U chip appeared as usb-storage, but seemed to behave the same way.
Linux drive power and USB power settings did not stop the forced sleep behavior.
Key points
- Some USB s force a to stop spinning every 15 to 20 minutes.
- Both a JMicron JMS551 and a JMicron JMS561U dock showed similar behavior.
- The drive’s start-stop count rose by about 100 in roughly two weeks of intermittent use.
- Linux drive power and USB power settings did not fix the issue.
- For a small server, the ’s can matter as much as the drive itself.