How to query harddrive for idle time or time to standby?

[hobbieman]

Hi,

I see that hdparm can be used to configure the length of time that a harddrive will wait idle before it goes into a power saving mode (i.e. standby). Also, I see that hdparm can be used to immediately send the harddrive to power saving mode.

Anyone know a way to query a harddrive for the length of time since it has been in the "active/idle" state? What about querying the time left until the next standby (provided no one access it)? Or querying the drive for how long it has been in the power saving mode?

Thanks.

[notageek]

You could use hdparm -I /dev/sda, for example my hdd reports the following:

Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum

[stevea]

Unfortunately hdparm -I /dev/sda always reports
"Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum"
since this is only a capabilities test.

I don't believe that hdparm can do the job.