Idle3-tools provides a linux/unix utility that can disable, get and set the
value of the infamous idle3 timer found on recent Western Digital Hard Disk
Drives.
It can be used as an alternative to the official wdidle3.exe proprietary
utility, without the need to reboot in a DOS environement.
A power off/on cycle of the drive will still be mandatory for new settings
to be taken into account.
Modern Western Digital "Green" Drives include the Intellipark feature that
stops the disk when not in use. Unfortunately, the default timer setting is
not perfect on linux/unix systems, including many NAS, and leads to a dramatic
increase of the Load Cycle Count value (SMART attribute #193).
Idle3-tools is an independant project, unrelated in any way to
Western Digital Corp.
WARNING : THIS SOFTWARE IS EXPERIMENTAL AND NOT WELL TESTED. IT ACCESSES LOW
LEVEL INFORMATION OF YOUR HARDDRIVE. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.