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Maniphest T9730

Spin down ejected hard drives
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Description

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=270808 tracks an issue whereby hard drives don't get spun down after being ejected. So when you pull the plug, the magnetic heads are still over the platters rather than being parked, which risks damaging the hardware.

This bug has been an irritant to many of our users for years, particular those (like myself) who use a USB external hard drive for backup that frequently gets plugged in and then unplugged a few minutes later. The issue is one of those longstanding issues that makes irate users wail "Why doesn't KDE care!!!!!1!1!!" and fixing it could have a significant PR benefit (not to mention that it's a legit bug that should be fixed).

@bruns mentioned that he'd like to take a crack at this issue and asked me to file a Phab task for it. So here we are. :)

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D15932 / R245:867f53608d3a: [UDisks2] Power down drive on remove if supported
ngraham created this task.Sep 24 2018, 4:04 AM
rooty added a subscriber: rooty.Sep 24 2018, 10:52 AM

+1

adding the option to both dolphin and the panel, i hope? :D

ngraham added a comment.Sep 24 2018, 12:52 PM
In T9730#161232, @rooty wrote:

+1

adding the option to both dolphin and the panel, i hope? :D

Since this is for safety, spinning down the disk wouldn't be an option, it would (and should) be done automatically.

rooty added a comment.EditedSep 24 2018, 12:56 PM

okay but what if you want to just unmount it (the entire drive) and not power it down?

ngraham added a comment.Sep 24 2018, 12:56 PM
In T9730#161272, @rooty wrote:

okay but what if you want to just unmount it and not power it down?

What's the use case for that?

rooty added a comment.EditedSep 24 2018, 12:57 PM

i know it's kinda niche, but if you want to unmount the entire drive in order to erase it or back it up, without having to unplug it and plug it back in

edit: oh and repartition it

rooty added a comment.EditedSep 24 2018, 12:59 PM

don't get me wrong, having drives spin down after being unmounted and having just one click do that ... that's pretty neat
i'm just asking if it's possible to have both an Eject and an Unmount option

ngraham added a comment.EditedSep 24 2018, 1:07 PM

I think it makes the most sense to err on the side of safety and simplicity rather than supporting esoteric workflows here. But I am not an expert on the Solid framework so I don't know what's easily possible, and ultimately it's up to whoever implements this. I wouldn't be averse to a semi-hidden unmount option in a context menu or something once we have a visible eject button in the Places Panel that does the safe action by default. But safety always comes first.

rooty added a comment.Sep 24 2018, 1:17 PM

fair point

bruns added a comment.Sep 24 2018, 1:19 PM

I think the reformat/repartition use case should be covered by the partitioner application, i.e. unmount from inside the partitioner.

In any other case, spinning down after unmounting the last partition is IMHO the right thing™.

ngraham added a comment.Sep 24 2018, 2:30 PM
In T9730#161280, @bruns wrote:

In any other case, spinning down after unmounting the last partition is IMHO the right thing™.

Agreed.

rooty added a comment.EditedSep 24 2018, 2:35 PM
In T9730#161280, @bruns wrote:

I think the reformat/repartition use case should be covered by the partitioner application, i.e. unmount from inside the partitioner.

In any other case, spinning down after unmounting the last partition is IMHO the right thing™.

yeah you're right, it's a fringe use case that can be dealt with on a per case basis