On 30/06/2025 in message <6n056k1ldn287vbt368vh7ffk01fabq1j4@4ax.com>
Scott wrote:

I have found a fairly old WD My Book Essential drive (which I think I >previously wiped). I thought this might be useful as a backup drive
but it won't work at the moment. Three ideas:

1. Wrong power supply. However, the power supply I am using is for
another WD My Book drive and it (the drive) lights up inside.
2. The drive is mechanically faulty. I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.
3. It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

Any ideas? Thanks.

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free can be helpful in diagnostics:

https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
When you think there's no hope left remember the lobsters in the tank in
the Titanic's restaurant.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:40:26 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

Scott wrote:

I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.

not sure if "stiction" affects post-90s drive?

It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

it needs to show in device manager / disk management before it will show
in file explorer.

Thank you. It shows in device manager, so I assume this rules out incompatibility of the power supply. Status = this device is working
properly. It does not show in file explorer. Will this be because it
is not formatted? How do I format it if it does not show in file
explorer? I can't image it could be because it was formatted for
Windows 7?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 30/06/2025 13:53, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:40:26 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

Scott wrote:

I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.

not sure if "stiction" affects post-90s drive?

It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

it needs to show in device manager / disk management before it will show
in file explorer.

Thank you. It shows in device manager, so I assume this rules out incompatibility of the power supply. Status = this device is working properly. It does not show in file explorer. Will this be because it
is not formatted?

It is likely it does not even have a partition on it (a non formatted
partition would usually show up)

How do I format it if it does not show in file
explorer?

Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative tools -> Create
and format hard disk partitions.

(Or from a windows explorer window, right click on the entry for "This
PC" and select "Manage", then click Disk Management under Storage)

That will then show all the physical drives that the system can see. You
should be able to create a partition on the drive and then format it.

I can't image it could be because it was formatted for
Windows 7?

Seems unlikely - Win 7 would format typically FAT32 or NTFS - both
useable on current versions of windows.


--
Cheers,

John.

/=================================================================\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk | |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk | \=================================================================/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 30/06/2025 13:53, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:40:26 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

Scott wrote:

I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.

not sure if "stiction" affects post-90s drive?

It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

it needs to show in device manager / disk management before it will show
in file explorer.

Thank you. It shows in device manager, so I assume this rules out incompatibility of the power supply. Status = this device is working properly. It does not show in file explorer. Will this be because it
is not formatted? How do I format it if it does not show in file
explorer? I can't image it could be because it was formatted for
Windows 7?

Whatever the reason, would you trust an old hard drive which Windows
doesn't get on with?

If you want to try something else, download and install Linux Mint on a
USB stick, and run that as a live version from a USB port of your
computer (you can do this without installing it on the computer). Run
"Disks" on Mint with the WD drive plugged into another USB port. Disks
should be able to tell you if the drive is formatted, and if so, with
what it is formatted. If the WD drive isn't formatted, Disks should be
able to do it for you - if it is possible.

--
Jeff

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I have found a fairly old WD My Book Essential drive (which I think I previously wiped). I thought this might be useful as a backup drive
but it won't work at the moment. Three ideas:

1. Wrong power supply. However, the power supply I am using is for
another WD My Book drive and it (the drive) lights up inside.
2. The drive is mechanically faulty. I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.
3. It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

Any ideas? Thanks.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Scott wrote:

I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.

not sure if "stiction" affects post-90s drive?

It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

it needs to show in device manager / disk management before it will show
in file explorer.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:09:40 +0100, John Rumm
<see.my.signature@nowhere.null> wrote:

On 30/06/2025 13:53, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:40:26 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

Scott wrote:

I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.

not sure if "stiction" affects post-90s drive?

It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

it needs to show in device manager / disk management before it will show >>> in file explorer.

Thank you. It shows in device manager, so I assume this rules out
incompatibility of the power supply. Status = this device is working
properly. It does not show in file explorer. Will this be because it
is not formatted?

It is likely it does not even have a partition on it (a non formatted >partition would usually show up)

How do I format it if it does not show in file
explorer?

Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative tools -> Create
and format hard disk partitions.

(Or from a windows explorer window, right click on the entry for "This
PC" and select "Manage", then click Disk Management under Storage)

That will then show all the physical drives that the system can see. You >should be able to create a partition on the drive and then format it.

Thanks. 'Windows tools' I assume. It says to initialise. MBR or GPT?
'Disk 2' is not in the main list. Does this reassure me it is the one
to be initialised.

I can't image it could be because it was formatted for
Windows 7?

Seems unlikely - Win 7 would format typically FAT32 or NTFS - both
useable on current versions of windows.

I thought that too. Your other advice seems to be the answer.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 30/06/2025 14:38, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:09:40 +0100, John Rumm
<see.my.signature@nowhere.null> wrote:

On 30/06/2025 13:53, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:40:26 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

Scott wrote:

I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.

not sure if "stiction" affects post-90s drive?

It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

it needs to show in device manager / disk management before it will show >>>> in file explorer.

Thank you. It shows in device manager, so I assume this rules out
incompatibility of the power supply. Status = this device is working
properly. It does not show in file explorer. Will this be because it
is not formatted?

It is likely it does not even have a partition on it (a non formatted
partition would usually show up)

How do I format it if it does not show in file
explorer?

Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative tools -> Create
and format hard disk partitions.

(Or from a windows explorer window, right click on the entry for "This
PC" and select "Manage", then click Disk Management under Storage)

That will then show all the physical drives that the system can see. You
should be able to create a partition on the drive and then format it.

Thanks. 'Windows tools' I assume. It says to initialise. MBR or GPT?

Depends on how you want to use the drive. For general compatibility and
ease of access on multiple machines, go for the older Master Boot Record
style partition (MBR).

If you want to boot from the drive on a modern PC with a UEFI bios, then
you would probably need to make it GUID Partition Table (GPT) for a
modern system to actually recognise it.

'Disk 2' is not in the main list. Does this reassure me it is the one
to be initialised.

The top list will only show actual volumes - i.e. formatted partitions
that are (usually) associated with a drive letter (although windows does
not actually require driver letters these days, it is common to use them
for compatibility with older software).

Note that you can have multiple partitions on one physical drive - so
you might have (say) 4 logical volumes mapped onto one physical disk
shown in the lower pane.

If you right click on the physical disk in the lower pane, and select "Properties" it will give you extra info about the disk - typically
including the manufacturer and model. That can give you the assurance
that you are playing with the right drive. Note that drives on external
USB interfaces might have their identity obscured by the USB interface
adaptor.

So in short, if you want a big lump of space to tote files about, make
the disk MBR, put one "primary" partition on it to fill all the
available space, and then format it as FAT32.

If you to preserve information like file ownership, alternate date
streams etc, then format it as NTFS.

--
Cheers,

John.

/=================================================================\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk | |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk | \=================================================================/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 30/06/2025 13:53, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:40:26 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

Scott wrote:

I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.

not sure if "stiction" affects post-90s drive?

It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

it needs to show in device manager / disk management before it will show
in file explorer.

Thank you. It shows in device manager, so I assume this rules out incompatibility of the power supply. Status = this device is working properly. It does not show in file explorer. Will this be because it
is not formatted? How do I format it if it does not show in file
explorer? I can't image it could be because it was formatted for
Windows 7?

Disk manager has the facility to format it. Pervious it may have been
formatted to something windows doesn't recognised - perhaps ext3/4 as
used by a lot of PVRs.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 30/06/2025 18:36, alan_m wrote:

On 30/06/2025 13:53, Scott wrote:

Thank you. It shows in device manager, so I assume this rules out
incompatibility of the power supply. Status = this device is working
properly. It does not show in file explorer. Will this be because it
is not formatted? How do I format it if it does not show in file
explorer? I can't image it could be because it was formatted for
Windows 7?

Disk manager has the facility to format it. Pervious it may have been formatted to something windows doesn't recognised - perhaps ext3/4 as
used by a lot of PVRs.

Using Disk Management:

1. Open Disk Management:
Search for "Disk Management" in the Windows search bar and open the application.

2. Locate the Disk:
Identify the disk you want to detect. It may appear as "Unknown" or "Not Initialized" if it's new or not formatted.

3. Initialize and Format:
If the disk is new or uninitialized, right-click on it and select
"Initialize Disk". Then, right-click and choose "New Simple Volume" to
format the drive with a file system (like NTFS) and assign a drive letter.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:09:38 +0100, John Rumm
<see.my.signature@nowhere.null> wrote:

On 30/06/2025 14:38, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:09:40 +0100, John Rumm
<see.my.signature@nowhere.null> wrote:

On 30/06/2025 13:53, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:40:26 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

Scott wrote:

I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.

not sure if "stiction" affects post-90s drive?

It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

it needs to show in device manager / disk management before it will show >>>>> in file explorer.

Thank you. It shows in device manager, so I assume this rules out
incompatibility of the power supply. Status = this device is working
properly. It does not show in file explorer. Will this be because it
is not formatted?

It is likely it does not even have a partition on it (a non formatted
partition would usually show up)

How do I format it if it does not show in file
explorer?

Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative tools -> Create
and format hard disk partitions.

(Or from a windows explorer window, right click on the entry for "This
PC" and select "Manage", then click Disk Management under Storage)

That will then show all the physical drives that the system can see. You >>> should be able to create a partition on the drive and then format it.

Thanks. 'Windows tools' I assume. It says to initialise. MBR or GPT?

Depends on how you want to use the drive. For general compatibility and
ease of access on multiple machines, go for the older Master Boot Record >style partition (MBR).

If you want to boot from the drive on a modern PC with a UEFI bios, then
you would probably need to make it GUID Partition Table (GPT) for a
modern system to actually recognise it.

'Disk 2' is not in the main list. Does this reassure me it is the one
to be initialised.

The top list will only show actual volumes - i.e. formatted partitions
that are (usually) associated with a drive letter (although windows does
not actually require driver letters these days, it is common to use them
for compatibility with older software).

Note that you can have multiple partitions on one physical drive - so
you might have (say) 4 logical volumes mapped onto one physical disk
shown in the lower pane.

If you right click on the physical disk in the lower pane, and select >"Properties" it will give you extra info about the disk - typically
including the manufacturer and model. That can give you the assurance
that you are playing with the right drive. Note that drives on external
USB interfaces might have their identity obscured by the USB interface >adaptor.

So in short, if you want a big lump of space to tote files about, make
the disk MBR, put one "primary" partition on it to fill all the
available space, and then format it as FAT32.

If you to preserve information like file ownership, alternate date
streams etc, then format it as NTFS.

Great, thanks. This was my assumption but I wanted to check in case I
trashed the wrong drive. Why FAT32 though when the rest of the PC is
NTFS?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:36:57 +0100, alan_m <junk@admac.myzen.co.uk>
wrote:

On 30/06/2025 13:53, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:40:26 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

Scott wrote:

I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.

not sure if "stiction" affects post-90s drive?

It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

it needs to show in device manager / disk management before it will show >>> in file explorer.

Thank you. It shows in device manager, so I assume this rules out
incompatibility of the power supply. Status = this device is working
properly. It does not show in file explorer. Will this be because it
is not formatted? How do I format it if it does not show in file
explorer? I can't image it could be because it was formatted for
Windows 7?

Disk manager has the facility to format it. Pervious it may have been >formatted to something windows doesn't recognised - perhaps ext3/4 as
used by a lot of PVRs.

Great, I think this will be tonight's entertainment.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:50:37 +0100, Scott
<newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:36:57 +0100, alan_m <junk@admac.myzen.co.uk>
wrote:

On 30/06/2025 13:53, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:40:26 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

Scott wrote:

I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.

not sure if "stiction" affects post-90s drive?

It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

it needs to show in device manager / disk management before it will show >>>> in file explorer.

Thank you. It shows in device manager, so I assume this rules out
incompatibility of the power supply. Status = this device is working
properly. It does not show in file explorer. Will this be because it
is not formatted? How do I format it if it does not show in file
explorer? I can't image it could be because it was formatted for
Windows 7?

Disk manager has the facility to format it. Pervious it may have been >>formatted to something windows doesn't recognised - perhaps ext3/4 as
used by a lot of PVRs.

Great, I think this will be tonight's entertainment.

It says the device is not ready.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 30/06/2025 18:49, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:09:38 +0100, John Rumm
<see.my.signature@nowhere.null> wrote:

On 30/06/2025 14:38, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:09:40 +0100, John Rumm
<see.my.signature@nowhere.null> wrote:

On 30/06/2025 13:53, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:40:26 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> >>>>> wrote:

Scott wrote:

I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.

not sure if "stiction" affects post-90s drive?

It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does >>>>>>> not show in File Explorer.

it needs to show in device manager / disk management before it will show >>>>>> in file explorer.

Thank you. It shows in device manager, so I assume this rules out
incompatibility of the power supply. Status = this device is working >>>>> properly. It does not show in file explorer. Will this be because it >>>>> is not formatted?

It is likely it does not even have a partition on it (a non formatted
partition would usually show up)

How do I format it if it does not show in file
explorer?

Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative tools -> Create >>>> and format hard disk partitions.

(Or from a windows explorer window, right click on the entry for "This >>>> PC" and select "Manage", then click Disk Management under Storage)

That will then show all the physical drives that the system can see. You >>>> should be able to create a partition on the drive and then format it.

Thanks. 'Windows tools' I assume. It says to initialise. MBR or GPT?

Depends on how you want to use the drive. For general compatibility and
ease of access on multiple machines, go for the older Master Boot Record
style partition (MBR).

If you want to boot from the drive on a modern PC with a UEFI bios, then
you would probably need to make it GUID Partition Table (GPT) for a
modern system to actually recognise it.

'Disk 2' is not in the main list. Does this reassure me it is the one
to be initialised.

The top list will only show actual volumes - i.e. formatted partitions
that are (usually) associated with a drive letter (although windows does
not actually require driver letters these days, it is common to use them
for compatibility with older software).

Note that you can have multiple partitions on one physical drive - so
you might have (say) 4 logical volumes mapped onto one physical disk
shown in the lower pane.

If you right click on the physical disk in the lower pane, and select
"Properties" it will give you extra info about the disk - typically
including the manufacturer and model. That can give you the assurance
that you are playing with the right drive. Note that drives on external
USB interfaces might have their identity obscured by the USB interface
adaptor.

So in short, if you want a big lump of space to tote files about, make
the disk MBR, put one "primary" partition on it to fill all the
available space, and then format it as FAT32.

If you to preserve information like file ownership, alternate date
streams etc, then format it as NTFS.

Great, thanks. This was my assumption but I wanted to check in case I
trashed the wrong drive. Why FAT32 though when the rest of the PC is
NTFS?

It depends on your use case. If it is just being used on the one windows
PC - then NTFS is fine.

If you want it to work across multiple platforms and be readable on a
variety of systems in addition to windows PCs then FAT32 can be read and written by pretty much anything. Support for NTFS on other platforms is
less universal.



--
Cheers,

John.

/=================================================================\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk | |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk | \=================================================================/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 6/30/2025 3:19 PM, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:50:37 +0100, Scott
<newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:36:57 +0100, alan_m <junk@admac.myzen.co.uk>
wrote:

On 30/06/2025 13:53, Scott wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:40:26 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

Scott wrote:

I would be surprised if a drive
could become faulty due to non-use.

not sure if "stiction" affects post-90s drive?

It needs to be initialised or whatever after being wiped. It does
not show in File Explorer.

it needs to show in device manager / disk management before it will show >>>>> in file explorer.

Thank you. It shows in device manager, so I assume this rules out
incompatibility of the power supply. Status = this device is working
properly. It does not show in file explorer. Will this be because it
is not formatted? How do I format it if it does not show in file
explorer? I can't image it could be because it was formatted for
Windows 7?

Disk manager has the facility to format it. Pervious it may have been
formatted to something windows doesn't recognised - perhaps ext3/4 as
used by a lot of PVRs.

Great, I think this will be tonight's entertainment.

It says the device is not ready.

This is an example video of the disassembly of one of those.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhEk0w5wqko

That happens to be a "shuck-able" drive. The drive has an actual SATA
connector on it, like ordinary drives at the computer store for internal computer usage would have. The "adapter" PCB is a bolt-on in this particular example video.

The companies also make hard drives, where instead of a SATA connector showing, the controller only shows a USB connector on the hard drive controller board. And then, those drives are permanently compromised by their fixed USB connection.
The USB hardware needs "S.M.A.R.T Passthrough" as a feature, in order to
read out the "drive health".

*******

We don't need to pay attention to the video right now, except to be
familiar with the internal parts. A USB to SATA converter, a SATA drive.
In other cases, the drive is "native USB" and not as useful to us.

*******

The drive was ready at one point, because the drive identity command will
not run, unless the drive is spinning and the firmware has been
loaded off the platter. The controller board bolted to the hard drive,
has a small ROM that the CPU on the drive uses. This is the "bootstrap code". It does not contain an ATA/ATAPI command interpreter, rendering the drive rather "dumb". when the power comes on, the bootstrap loads, the drive
works the heads off the landing ramp, and when the spindle is up to speed (Listen with your ear for "humming" indicating a motor is working),
the heads load onto the platters. And maybe 2MB of additional code is loaded off the platter. This can include critical data structures, a "map" which
maps spared out sectors (stored in the cache RAM), plus the ATA command set code.

(If you hold your ear to an enclosure, and you hear "deedle-dee deedle0-dee",
the spindle is stuck. the spindle seizes when the lubricant in the motor is gone.)

At this point, if the computer (via USB or via SATA) asks the drive
"who are you", it would answer WD10PURP or whatever. It would send
a string which is the drive model number.

And basically at this point then, the work necessary to bring up
the command interpreter, has "proven in" that the heads are intact,
the platter spins, and so on.

Now, if the drive "goes to sleep", it has a different state. The
controller firmware is still loaded. The power does not go off on
the controller board. But the controller, if it wants, can spin
down the drive. On occasion, a drive design, is unable to "wake"
properly, and it may give a "drive not ready" status. Which means
the drive technically works, but some sort of firmware bug prevents
continued operation. (While Windows Device Manager shows some
"Power Save" tick boxes for keyboard and mouse, presumably the
drive does not show any of those.)

External drives use "aggressive sleep" to control the enclosure
temperature. On some drives, this was set as low as five seconds,
which is just "silly". The drive is allowed to load and unload
the heads, at least 300,000 times. You can see that aggressive
sleep, could eat into that lifetime count. The problem is,
the OS occasionally "pokes" the drive to see if it is still
present, and this ruins the utility of the drive-implemented sleep.

If you use the HDTune "bad block scan", that serves to read the platter surface.

https://www.hdtune.com/download.html

https://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

If S.M.A.R.T Passthrough is not working, the Health page will remain
blank, and possibly a minus sign will appear where the drive temperature
should be, indicating the temperature cannot be read over USB. HDTune Free
is an "old" program, does not know about SSD drives particularly,
but it serves an occasional purpose.

HDTune runs as Administrator, because it is doing low level access to
a storage device. You could cable up the drive, start HDTune, then flip
the power switch on the enclosure, then keep checking the HDTune
menu for the drive identifier. Click "Start" in the Error Scan
menu item, and see how long (or if) the drive will run, for a
"surface scan".

That's an example of a fairly simple activity. By reading continuously,
if the drive even stays "ready" for a few seconds, you may be able
to read it for an hour or two (it can't enter sleep state, if
the user keeps reading). The drive enclosure (being fan-free of
course), gets pretty warm when you do this. The purpose of doing
a scan, is to get some idea whether the thing is full of bad blocks,
has a few, or is "green all the way".

Removing the drive from the enclosure, does not remove the
aggressive sleep behavior. Not necessarily. There may be a command
for that, but it's been a while since I've needed to work at
that level on a drive.

But seeing as your drive is reporting Not Ready, something is up
with the power state. And the sleep behavior is not a response
to temperature either. Even if the room was refrigerated, the
hardware would continue to irritate you with that behavior.
It used to be that only laptop drives went to sleep instantly.

The drive body is typically rated for around 60C max. The disk
writing operations are temperature-compensated. The drive has
always had a need to measure the temperature, as part of operations
of the dense ones. Older drives with only megabytes of data,
the flying height was 1000x what it is now. A temperature of
60C though, is not a good permanent state for the motor,
as a higher operating temperature can cause the lubricant to
escape the motor. The seals on modern motors are very good, so
let's hope that is no longer an issue.

Paul

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