Q: My computer is the file server, so if I was able to turn off hard drive after X minutes it will turn off since the last time I used the network traffic or uses it? They are used as Busmaster I dont know if it will shut down after I use the latter if my roommate finished in one hour later say. Anyone?
Re:Well, not that it matters since he's gone, but…
Busmaster only works inside the computer itself. External accesses are going to the network card, which doesn't know anything about a hard drive existing and doesn't even know what the packets are for, so it sends the network packets to the CPU to process, the CPU finds that the packets are a request for a shared file, accesses the hard drive, reads the data into memory, converts the data into IP packets, sends them to the network card, which sends them to the requesting computer.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
Don't look at network traffic as something separate from your own accesses. As far as the hard drive's power saving is concerned, the OS is what makes all the accesses, and the power saving kicks in after the last access by the OS. Network computers request a file from your OS, not directly accessing the hard drive.
I thought BusMaster bypassed the OS, or was that just the CPU?
Re:Don't look at network traffic as something separate from your own accesses. As far as the hard drive's power saving is concerned, the OS is what makes all the accesses, and the power saving kicks in after the last access by the OS. Network computers request a file from your OS, not directly accessing the hard drive.
Re:It will (should) turn on and off as necessary, no matter what kind of program or user initiates the read or write requests. I just leave my HDs on all the time (no power saving) because I run programs (http://folding.stanford.edu/) in the background.
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