External HDD won't stop spinning

[Jules]

Hi Guys,
I am running BH 2.1.0 and fainally my box has stopped crashing.
Only problem is my USB HDD will not stop spinning. It is running continuously.
I have tried everything, can someone help please?

Thanks.
Regards,
Jules.

[Nikkas]

Not enough information on your set really my friend. Need to know how you are using the HDD. Is it just for Recording & Timeshift or are you accessing, plugins, Picons, etc from it? Got Permanent Timeshift running?

If none of the preceding you could try setting the Hard Disk Standby setting in Setup but that is normally set to 5 minutes by default anyway.

[Jules]

Thanks nikkas,
I am just using the hdd for recording. Timeshift is off but epg is stored on it aswell as 256m swapfile.
Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Jules.

[ian]

No your not just using it for recording !

You have a swap on this HDD and the swap is used constantly and continually by the image, so you will have to put up with it constantly spinning or buy a powered USB hub and plug in a USB stick too,to create your swap file on that instead and add the epg data and picons to this stick too.

The Solo only has one USB port so to stop the HDD spinning this is your only option.

[echelon]

and due to what ian is saying above, is why I was advised to use a usb stick for picons and swapfile and epg data, leaving the hdd to do the jobs of recording and playback only (on my vu duo) , so as ian says, you are not "just using it for recording"

[ian]

I understand the desire ech to stop the HDD from constantly spinning as every HDD only has a certain amount of revolutions before it will die and no one is ever going to know how many or how long it will last.

however

A constantly spinning HDD will actually provide much less stress on a given HDD than continually stopping and starting it once more,ie sending it to sleep,then waking it up again.
these actions are the most stressfull actions any HDD will face and drastically reduce its life,so in truth you may not even be extending its life by stopping it from spinning.

it will last as long as it lasts and theres little we can do really because of the way that we use them in our boxes(daily)unlike a pc's HDD that maybe turned off for days at a time.

Ian.

[Jules]

Thanks Guys, As Ian advised in another post, it does seem to be the skin. I have installed the Vix image again and left the skin as default.
Now it seems to be running fine, (fingers crossed) Thanks again Ian. Just keen to know how I can extend the swapfile to 512m?


Regards,
Jules.