External Hard Drive Won't Spin Out
Guys, I was using a Seagate Expansion 4TB external hard drive that was working correctly. It was configured to shut down after 10 minutes using the command hdparm -S 120 /dev/sdc1.
Okay, unfortunately, like all hard drives, it eventually died completely, and this wasn't a problem because I had another 4TB external hard drive, a different model, with the same files, synchronized via rsync...
Well, this new model simply won't shut down after the configured 10 minutes.
The physical differences between the two are that the new one only has a USB 3.0 cable, while the old one had a USB 3.0 cable and a power supply, plus the case is larger...
Despite being a Samsung external hard drive, it came pre-assembled with an internal Seagate drive - lol!
While searching online, I came across some similar cases, not directly in OpenWRT, but in other Linux distributions, where some people reported that it could be something with the UAS "driver," and since I had it installed on OpenWRT, I decided to remove it, but it didn't have the desired effect.
Running the command "lsusb -t", I get the following output:
root@horus:~# lsusb -t
/: Bus 001.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-pci/3p, 480M
|__ Port 001: Dev 002, If 0, Class=[unknown], Driver=hub/8p, 480M
/: Bus 002.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 480M
|__ Port 003: Dev 002, If 0, Class=[unknown], Driver=usb-storage, 480M
|__ Port 004: Dev 003, If 0, Class=[unknown], Driver=usbhid, 12M
|__ Port 004: Dev 003, If 1, Class=[unknown], Driver=usbhid, 12M
/: Bus 003.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 5000M
|__ Port 001: Dev 003, If 0, Class=[unknown], Driver=usb-storage, 5000M
|__ Port 002: Dev 002, If 0, Class=[unknown], Driver=r8152, 5000M
/: Bus 004.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-pci/3p, 480M
|__ Port 001: Dev 002, If 0, Class=[unknown], Driver=hub/6p, 480M
|__ Port 005: Dev 003, If 0, Class=[unknown], Driver=[none], 12M
|__ Port 005: Dev 003, If 1, Class=[unknown], Driver=[none], 12M
root@horus:~#
Running the command "smartctl -d sat -a /dev/sdc1", I get the following output:
root@horus:~# smartctl -d sat -a /dev/sdc1
smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.6.119] (localbuild)
Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Samsung SpinPoint M8U (USB)
Device Model: ST1000LM025 HN-M101ABB
Serial Number: <edited>
LU WWN Device Id: 0 000000 000000000
Firmware Version: 2BA30001
User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 5400 rpm
Form Factor: 2.5 inches
Device is: In smartctl database 7.3/5528
ATA Version is: ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 6
SATA Version is: SATA 3.0, 3.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Sun Mar 15 21:49:18 2026 -03
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Status not supported: Incomplete response, ATA output registers missing
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
Warning: This result is based on an Attribute check.
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (13260) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 221) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x003f) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
2 Throughput_Performance 0x0026 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0023 090 089 025 Pre-fail Always - 3221
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 582
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 252 252 010 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 252 252 051 Old_age Always - 0
8 Seek_Time_Performance 0x0024 252 252 015 Old_age Offline - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 93
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 252 252 051 Old_age Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 2
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 373
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 6
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0022 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0002 064 063 000 Old_age Always - 35 (Min/Max 20/49)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 252 252 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0036 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x002a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 20
223 Load_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 2
225 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 2666
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 0
Note: revision number not 1 implies that no selective self-test has ever been run
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Completed [00% left] (0-65535)
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
The above only provides legacy SMART information - try 'smartctl -x' for more
root@horus:~#
Finally, running the command "hdparm -I /dev/sdc" gives me the following output:
root@horus:~# hdparm -I /dev/sdc
/dev/sdc:
ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: ST1000LM025 HN-M101ABB
Serial Number: <edited>
Firmware Revision: 2BA30001
Transport: Serial, ATA8-AST, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6, SATA Rev 3.0
Standards:
Used: unknown (minor revision code 0x0028)
Supported: 8 7 6 5
Likely used: 8
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
--
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 268435455
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 1953525168
Logical Sector size: 512 bytes
Physical Sector size: 4096 bytes
Logical Sector-0 offset: 0 bytes
device size with M = 1024*1024: 953869 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 1000204 MBytes (1000 GB)
cache/buffer size = 16384 KBytes
Form Factor: 2.5 inch
Nominal Media Rotation Rate: 5400
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
Queue depth: 32
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = ?
Advanced power management level: disabled
Recommended acoustic management value: 254, current value: 0
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 *mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 udma6
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* SMART feature set
Security Mode feature set
* Power Management feature set
* Write cache
* Look-ahead
* Host Protected Area feature set
* WRITE_BUFFER command
* READ_BUFFER command
* NOP cmd
* DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
Advanced Power Management feature set
Power-Up In Standby feature set
* SET_FEATURES required to spinup after power up
SET_MAX security extension
Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
* 48-bit Address feature set
* Device Configuration Overlay feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
* FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
* SMART error logging
* SMART self-test
* General Purpose Logging feature set
* 64-bit World wide name
* IDLE_IMMEDIATE with UNLOAD
* WRITE_UNCORRECTABLE_EXT command
* {READ,WRITE}_DMA_EXT_GPL commands
* Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
* Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
* Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
* Phy event counters
* Idle-Unload when NCQ is active
* NCQ priority information
DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
Device-initiated interface power management
Software settings preservation
* SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
* SCT Read/Write Long (AC1), obsolete
* SCT Write Same (AC2)
* SCT Error Recovery Control (AC3)
* SCT Features Control (AC4)
* SCT Data Tables (AC5)
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
not enabled
not locked
not frozen
not expired: security count
supported: enhanced erase
212min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 212min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 0000000000000000
NAA : 0
IEEE OUI : 000000
Unique ID : 000000000
Checksum: correct
root@horus:~#
All the commands above were extracted from this website, which has some workarounds, but I tried applying them and was unsuccessful.
So I'm here to ask my friends if there's anything we can do about this.
Best regards to all!