Hdparm

hdparm (hard disk parameters) is a CLI application to configure ATA/IDE hard disks.

There are many options that can be set, see the man page for a full list. Note that some options can be harmful and can cause data loss or complete system lockups. So: Use at your own risk.

Example usage

Check the current settings for the first hard disk:

# hdparm /dev/hda

General harddrive information:

# hdparm -i /dev/hda

Benchmark (useful to compare after tweaking some settings):

# hdparm -tT /dev/hda

Set the spindown time to 30min:

# hdparm -S 241 /dev/hda

Force a hardisk into standby mode:

# hdparm -y /dev/hda

External links

• Tuning up your IDE hard disks using hdparm (usalug.org)
• ATA, UDMA and hdparm (www.linuxnetmag.org)