time-controlled spindown with hdparm

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I don't know which package is the problem. On Ubuntu 12.10 it works on Xubuntu 12.10 it doesn't work!

I have the same problem, except that I'm running Ubuntu 12.10. The disk in question is Hitachi HDT721010SLA360 connected to ASUS P8H77-I motherboard. The disk goes to standby with hdparm -y , but hdparm -S 1 (or any other number I tried) has no effect. I have a feeling that this might be related to having the system configured in BIOS to AHCI mode instead of PATA, but I haven't examined that further.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Could you see if it's related to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/607560 ?

I think it is an other bug.
If the hdd is spindown manually, then start the hdd only by user-access.

I can confirm that!
On Xubuntu 12.04 hdparm time spindown was working but after the distributions update to xubuntu 12.10 no longer works.
hdparm -y /dev/sdx is still working. Than the hd only wake up when an user have access to the hd.

confirmed regression after upgrading regular ubuntu to 12.10 (worked on 12.04 and earlier versions).
2TB WD Green (WDC_WD20EARS, different revisions) are affected.
An older 1TB Samsung F1 still spin's down by itself (only with additional -B 127 adjustment, like already in 12.04)

confirmed.

WDC_WD20EARS also doesnt spindown here. Ubuntu 12.10 Server Edition

same here with a Western Digital D2502ABYS-01B7A0 either in desktop and server edition of Ubuntu 12.10.

hdparm -y and hdparm -S 12 on the command line spins down the drive, but the entry in hdpram.conf does not. The entry is

/dev/disk/by-uuid/222C6A972C6A65AF {
        spindown_time = 12
}

...sorry, of course I meant the entry in hdparm.conf (just a literal)

I can confirm the same behavior for Ubuntu 12.10 AMD64 on an ASUS P8B75-V. My boot drive, sda, is an ssd.

The four mechanical drives run through a single pci/IDE interface.

 sda: OCZ-VERTEX4 (1.5) (ssd, not an issue)
 sdb: Seagate ST380011A
 sdc: Maxtor 6L020L1
 sdd: Maxtor 6E020L0
 sde: Hitachi HDS724040KLAT80

All mechanical drives spindown 60 seconds after signon, as configured in the 'Disks' gui (ver 3.6.1).
All mechanical drives reliably respond to 'sudo hdparm -S 12 /dev/sdb' (as do sdc,sdd,and sde).
All mechanical drives remain asleep until user or program access.

When NOT configured to spindown in 'Disks', all mechanical drives do not recognize/respond to commands in /etc/hdparm.conf:

 /dev/sdb {spindown_time=12}
 /dev/sdc {spindown_time=12}
 /dev/sdd {spindown_time=12}
 /dev/sde {spindown_time=12}

Also, after a suspend/resume powerdown, all mechanical drives no longer spindown again unless commanded to in terminal or the 'Disks' gui.