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Idea #11469: USB Flash drive power off

Written by IUnknown the 24 Jul 08 at 10:22. Category: Hardware support. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
It is a good idea to power off USB Flash Drive (switch off drive light) after unmount.
Tags: Drive Flash USB

408
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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #11469
Written by IUnknown the 24 Jul 08 at 10:22.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #11469 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!
5
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Solution #2: Add extra option to power off usb flash drive
Written by blackgr the 7 Jul 09 at 14:15.
Power off after umount is not a good way to do it, because a flash drive might also have several partitions. Umount one partition whould actually turn off the rest. Adding a new option to Power Off usb disks which whould first umount all paritions whould be a good idea.

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Comments
PiHalbe wrote on the 24 Jul 08 at 13:05
Which applies also to USB hard drives. Mine sometimes keeps spinning for a day until I notice.

SeySayux wrote on the 24 Jul 08 at 13:13
Seems to be something related to Unix as a whole, or maybe it's only Microsoft Windows that turns of USB devices after unmount? Mac OS X has the same behaviour as Linux.

droetker wrote on the 24 Jul 08 at 16:27
Definitely +1

nsanz wrote on the 24 Jul 08 at 18:01
I'm a iPod user, and this isn't a good idea for this users, because I unmount the iPod but the iPod still charging, and I like this situation

Diggs808 wrote on the 24 Jul 08 at 19:32
maybe it could be an option on system preferences??

_sebastian_ wrote on the 24 Jul 08 at 23:57
+1 for as an option

stinger30au wrote on the 25 Jul 08 at 02:35
this should be made as an option, not just power off and thats it.

+1 for as an option

juno eclipse wrote on the 25 Jul 08 at 04:47
You can spin off external hard drive with the command :
sudo sdparm --command=stop /dev/sd[x]

Breakable wrote on the 25 Jul 08 at 12:55
Then spinning off should be done by default after gui unmount.

fmorel90 wrote on the 26 Jul 08 at 17:01
I voted up...then remembered my iPod. I like to unmount and leave it charging.

KIAaze (Idea reviewer) wrote on the 30 Jul 08 at 23:30
I think there are more USB key users than iPod users...
And as mentioned previously, it could be made optional.

Or even simpler: Right-click and choose between unmount and eject. (eject causing the light to go off of course)

nsanz wrote on the 2 Aug 08 at 06:31
@KIAaze: optional is a god idea, and turn off by default.
maybe an option when unmount an iPod, a question to stay alive or turn off is a possibility.

mujambee wrote on the 20 Aug 08 at 13:17
What if you have more than one partition? What if you want to unmount just to change mount point and remount inmediately?

Perhaps it could be better to have a "stop device" option.

As for the Windows reference up there, when you click on "Eject hardware" in Windows, you are not umounting anything, you are just stopping a device in order to remove it. You click on this or that disc or card, but the system traverses up the device tree until it finds an ejectable node and stops that, effectively stopping everything else under that branch in the tree.

cubic wrote on the 22 Feb 09 at 08:00
Is there a progress in promotion and implementation this idea? I think, an easy opportunity for a user to power off USB drive, especially hard drive, is a must.

satya_461 wrote on the 12 May 09 at 12:29
Unmount should "automatically" turn off the light on the USB drives.

yurik81 wrote on the 23 Jul 10 at 18:28
+1 Problem still present in Ubuntu 10.04


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