Hi, I have Linux Mint 18.2 installed on a SDD. Also mounted is a HDD which is only used for storage. It contains some pictures, movies and music, but no applications.
Quite often I can hear that the HDD spins up and is being used, much more frequently than I would expect. I would like to find out what causes that.
The two things I can think of are:
- Rhythmbox (although not playing while the HDD spins up)
- the drive is shared via NFS to a LibreElec device with Kodi
Is there any way to track which application/process really causes it?
What causes my HDD to be busy?
Forum rules
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
What causes my HDD to be busy?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Re: What causes my HDD to be busy?
iotop might do what you're after.
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
Re: What causes my HDD to be busy?
A magnetic drive with SMART switched on will test itself occasionally, although there's some discussion about whether that's because the drive has a built-in interval timer or something in Ubuntu is set to check...
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1573929
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1573929
Re: What causes my HDD to be busy?
Install iotop withDaveDS wrote:Is there any way to track which application/process really causes it?
sudo apt-get install iotop
then in the terminal sudo iotop -oPa -d 2
to monitor I/O activity.Re: What causes my HDD to be busy?
Great, thanks, I will give it a try.
Re: What causes my HDD to be busy?
It turned out to be the application Timeshift, a backup tool, that was appearently configured to make system backups on a daily basis and at boot.
Re: What causes my HDD to be busy?
Did iotop help out with identifying the disk hogDaveDS wrote:It turned out to be the application Timeshift, a backup tool, that was appearently configured to make system backups on a daily basis and at boot.
Re: What causes my HDD to be busy?
Absolutely!