How to avoid HDD spin up at system start? (Ubuntu from SSD)

Posted by Oliver on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by Oliver
Published on 2011-01-26T22:20:23Z Indexed on 2011/02/12 7:33 UTC
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boot

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hdd

Thanks to hdparm -B1 /dev/sdb my HDD does no longer spin up when powered up on boot. But after completing the BIOS POST messages and starting Ubuntu the HDD gets a signal over the SATA data cable and spins up.

Leaving the data cable (but still with plugged in SATA power cable) let the system boot up completely from my SSD without spinning up the HDD.

What causes the HDD to spin up? Maybe Grub2?

Edit: nope, doesn't seem to be Grub2 that spins up the drive. I just set up Grub to show its menu without timer. Nothings happens until I hit the Ubuntu standard boot option, then a few seconds later the drive spins up.

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