Question ASUS router keeps reading network HDDs ?

[jdcrutch]

Hello. I have an ASUS RT-ACRH13 with several hard drives in a Mediasonic ProBox HF2-SU3S2 enclosure, attached to the router via USB. The HDDs are running all the time. If I plug the ProBox directly into my computer, the drives don't run all the time, so I assume it's the router that's constantly reading them. Is that what's happening? Is it normal? It makes some noise (not much, but enough to bug me), and I assume it's shortening the life of my HDDs, but it's not causing me any real problems. Should I be concerned? Is there anything I can do? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[BFG-9000]

Spin down HDD is a feature added by Merlin firmware (which is essentially the stock ASUS-WRT firmware with extra hidden features unlocked with some help by ASUS), however your router (which is the same as a RT-AC58U ) is not supported by Merlin.

I can understand why ASUS would want to hide such a feature from most users, as the USB port is so slow as to make most people only consider using a USB flash drive for its world's slowest NAS function, and USB sticks don't need it. Since the feature is there but just hidden, there may be a way to enable it via commandline through Telnet. Just as with Windows, it sends a spin-down command to the HDDs after they have been idle for awhile.

Tomato and DD-WRT also include a HDD spin-down feature via simple tick-box but also do not support your router. Generally if you are interested in longevity from a router you would only consider those with strong 3rd-party support, so it could continue to receive security updates long after factory firmware updates get discontinued. 3rd party OpenWRT does support your Atheros chipset router but probably isn't for the faint of heart as it's not as easy to set up as stock.

The only other alternative is to ask the HDD manufacturer for a firmware that spins down when idle for some time, like most consumer drives do. Most better drives intended for RAID or 24/7 surveillance recording do not include that feature since it can inadvertently cause the RAID array to fail or software to crash when it doesn't respond quickly enough.

 

[jdcrutch]

Thanks for the reply, which is very informative, but I'm not sure where it leaves me. It sounds like there's nothing I can do, unless I replace my router. Since the router works fine otherwise, I don't think I'll do that. In case it gives you any other ideas, the HDDs are one Hitachi HDS723030ALA640 and one Western Digital WD20 EZRX-00D8PB0. I also have two Samsung SSDs in the enclosure, which Windows can read if I plug in to the computer, but not via the network. I'll post a separate question about that. But anyway, thanks again. If there is something I can do to stop the HDDs from running all the time (other than just turning the enclosure off, which is what I'm doing now), please let me know.