The following line in /etc/crontab…

*/10 *  * * *   root    /usr/local/bin/check-bigspace-unmounted >/dev/null 2>&1

Runs this script every 10 minutes (or is that 6) to see if “Bigspace” (my 2nd SATA drive for bulk storage) is not mounted. And if not, then it spins it down:

mount |grep Bigspace
if [ $? -ne 0 ] ; then
   echo "Bigspace is not mounted"
   /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/disk/by-label/Bigspace |grep standby
   if [ $? -ne 0 ] ; then
      echo "Spinning down Bigspace"
      spindown-bigspace
      exit 0
   fi
   echo "Bigspace is spundown"
else
   echo "Bigspace is mounted"
   exit 1

fi 

I sadly haven't found a graceful way of doing this yet. But it works.

i created a little script that is called in crontab i still would like to add a automatic detection of every disk in the system

#!/bin/bash
if [ ! -f /dev/shm/1 ]
then
touch /dev/shm/1 /dev/shm/2
echo “$(date ‘+%F %T’) Tempfile does not exist, creating” >> /var/log/hd_spindown.log
fi
mv /dev/shm/1 /dev/shm/2
cat /proc/diskstats > /dev/shm/1

export HD=”sdf ”
if [ "$(diff /dev/shm/1 /dev/shm/2 | grep $HD )" = "" ]
then
if [ "$(/sbin/hdparm -C /dev/$HD | grep "drive state" | cut -d: -f2 | awk '{ print $1}')" = "standby" ]
then
echo “$(date ‘+%F %T’) $HD already spun down” >> /var/log/hd_spindown.log
else
/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/$HD
echo “$(date ‘+%F %T’) Spindown $HD” >> /var/log/hd_spindown.log
fi
else
echo “$(date ‘+%F %T’) $HD is in use” >> /var/log/hd_spindown.log
fi