External Hard Drive Issue

KnightZ87

Hi guys!

I have been searching high and low and haven't really had any success finding the answer for my problem.

I've got a 2tb WD usb hard drive with power adaptor formatted to fat32 attached to my Raspberry pi 3+.

I put the folder retropie-mount on it and got the folders loaded on as expected and loaded some psx roms.

When playing psx games it seems that the hard drive will read data at random points in games and cause a 1 second pause. I know that's not the end of the world but it's annoying.

I keep reading about hdparm but not sure if that's anything that could help my problem.

Any advice?
Im not great with command line but can follow instructions.

Many thanks!

GoldManSex778

@KnightZ87 If you could post the specific model for the drive then we could look at things like rpm which would affect the access speed. a 7200 rpm drive will be better than a 5400 rpm in most cases for that reason.

Could you be more specific about the problem with the games, is it happening with redbook audio?

KnightZ87

Sorry just got a chance to get back on here. Right OK so...

I was using a WD Elements 2tb desktop hard drive.

I did some reading and it turns out this hard drive goes to sleep after a stupidly short amount of time of being idle and for some reason they have blocked it so you can't change any of the spin down/up settings. I tried both hdparm and from my windows pc with no success. Some WD drives you can access with WD Utilitys but this model was not compatible with that service.

The problem I was having was when I was playing psx games (good example was ISS pro evolution 2). I would start to play a match and every 8 - 10 seconds the game would just freeze for literally a second. This was every 8 - 10 seconds which got incredibly irritating. It just seemed whenever the game would need data from the hard drive which was often, it would wake up the hard drive again.

Luckily I've swapped this with my dad for his Verbatim USB 2.0 hard drive and by the sound of things this spins constantly. I've not played it enough to see wether it trys to sleep after say and hour or whatever but I played like 30 - 40 minutes last night and it was flawless. Even if it did say after an hour I could live with that. Every few seconds is a killer.

So my conclusion is (unless anyone knows a way to bypass the restrictions on the WD elements drive) is to read up thoroughly on different external hard drives and check if they spin down after X amount of time and check if these settings are easily editable. If a hard drive sleeps after a very short time and doesn't let you change it then stay clear.

That's my view on the issue. I'm no expert so if I'm overlooking something there or someone feels they have a better answer then feel free to add.

Thanks for your earlier reply.

edmaul69

@KnightZ87 i think wd has a program to disable the sleep feature.

GoldManSex778

@KnightZ87 Something else to consider would be getting a generic hdd usb enclosure with an off-the-shelf hdd.

KnightZ87

@edmaul69 They do, but unfortunately it doesn't support that specific hard drive. I downloaded the software and it wouldn't pick it up. Unless there is some hack then no joy I'm afraid.

KnightZ87

@GoldManSex778 Yea I had thought of that but luckily the HDD I'm using now seems to work. So for now I will use that.

edmaul69

@GoldManSex778 the case doesnt matter. The sleep function is a hardware feature built into the drives.

GoldManSex778

@edmaul69 Exactly, but with a universal enclosure it would be easier to find and use a drive that doesn't have that in the firmware. Unless you are saying that ALL drives have those features?

omen_peter

@KnightZ87 i read this post with interest as I also use a WD Elements HDD using the retropie-mount method, but I don't recall having this issue of it spinning down and causing games to pause. Looking online I realised my drive is one of their 'portable' versions. Whilst this means it isn't compatible with any WD Utilities software, it also means it doesn't actually appear to have a sleep mode! Reading reviews this is seen as a bad thing but for retro gaming I guess it's a plus!

Here's a link to the one I use:

omen_peter

@KnightZ87 i should add that my drive is NTFS formatted.

KnightZ87

@omen_peter heres a link to the one I was using. https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Elements-Desktop-External-Drive/dp/B00H7TBBSW/ref=mp_s_a_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1551975904&sr=8-10&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=western+digital+2tb

I didn't try NTFS. Maybe I could have given that a whirl.

I've swapped that drive with my dad though and the one I'm using now is working fine. So I probably won't bother trying it now. In hindsight 2TB is overkill for the library I will have on it. He backs up alot of music. So the swap has suited both parties.

The one I'm using now is a verbatim 1tb but I can't seem to find it online. It's a few years old now but was rarely used. Works a treat.

schnickalot

I bought WD Elements 2 GB (w/o extra power Adapter) a few days ago and saw this thread yesterday and immediately tested ISS Pro Evo Soccer II from HDD and from SD and I can confirm there are minimal freezes playing from HDD. From SD Card everything is fine. I also tested a racing game (Porsche Challenge) but this was ok even from HDD.

I would like use a HDD w/o extra power adapter - can someone suggest which HDD to buy?

backstander

@KnightZ87

Have a look at this article about hdparm! There are many settings you can tweak!

Tune Your Hard Disk with hdparm:
http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Features/Tune-Your-Hard-Disk-with-hdparm

You could also set the sleep/standby timer to a longer time!

Change hard drive's sleep/standby mode timer to reduce power consumption:
https://linuxconfig.org/change-hard-drive-s-sleep-standby-mode-timer-to-reduce-power-consumption

Spin Down and Manage Hard Drive Power on Raspberry Pi
https://www.htpcguides.com/spin-down-and-manage-hard-drive-power-on-raspberry-pi/