OK, I need an Apple genius (a real genius...)

OK, so here's the deal.

OS X has VERY aggressive hard drive power management that you can't modify. Because of this, my hard drive parks its heads every few seconds.

This program came along:

http://mckinlay.net.nz/hdapm/

It modifies the APM level of your drive so it no longer continually parks heads. It works great!

HOWEVER, if I reboot, the application has to be run again in Terminal, and I can't figure out how to make it work in Leopard so that it runs on every boot.

The Readme says this:

Installation
Copy hdapm to somewhere on your system - I suggest /usr/local/bin. If you want to have hdapm run
automatically at startup, also copy the hdapm.plist to /Library/LaunchDaemons
Note that you may need to edit hdapm.plist with your desired settings. By default it assumes you installed the hdapm
binary in /usr/local/bin, and will set the primary drive (disk0) to the maximum performance APM level.
Usage
hdapm device level
Example: hdapm disk0 max
hdapm takes two arguments: the device name of the target drive (usually disk0), and the desired APM level. The
APM level is a number between 1 and 254, inclusive. The exact meaning of each value depends on your driveʼs
firmware, but in general lower numbers mean more power saving and higher numbers mean more performance.
The following APM levels are pre-defined, and can be used in place of a numeric value:
• max - maximum performance. Use this setting to eliminate “clicking when idle” noises.
• min - maximum power savings.
• default - return to default setting.
Uninstalling
To completely remove hdapm from your system, delete the following files:
/Library/LaunchDaemons/hdapm.plist and /usr/local/bin/hdapm

First, I don't have a /usr/local/bin folder (I have /usr/local/sbin), and even when I used TextEdit to modify the .plist file to say /usr/local/sbin, rebooting means it doesn't auto-run. I can't figure out why. Perhaps Leopard needs slightly different commands? Second, I have to type: ./hdapm , not just hdapm - to run it, so maybe there's something else I'm missing?

Could someone please please figure out what's wrong with the instructions? I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!

 

is this what apple meant when they said "it just works" ? I find it hilarious that you need to deal with the terminal while using the latest OSX. Sorry no offense meant, but with the price you paid for your computer/software this shouldnt be happening.

 

As much as I'd love to reply to that, I won't...

 

Just curious why you want to do this? Also, I am not sure how this program works, and with notebooks, you really want those heads parked as often as possible. Anyway, I am sure you know the risks of running a program like this.

What you can do is write an AppleScript that will run on boot automatically. I am not good at AppleScript so I can't write it for you, but searching around google should really help.

 

Heya. I have pieces of answers for you. One is that you can make the directory yourself. just cd over to /usr/local and mkdir bin. the ./hdapm vs hdapm is because /usr/local/sbin is not in your path. Your path is a special variable the operating system uses to look for executables when you type commands. I wouldn't worry about that too awful much.

This is a stab in the dark, but I'd guess your launchdaemon thing is a minor configuration issue or a permissions issue. Any chance you stuck it in ~/Library/LaunchDaemons and not /Library/LaunchDaemons?

Out of curiosity, why do you want to change the behavior? I've had three laptop hdds die on me (really only one was my fault), and I'd like the thing parked as much as is possible.

 

I'd actually suggest you browse through an intro to Unix tutorial somewhere real quick too - it'll answer a lot of the questions you have about bin folders, root and parent hierarchies, how to make new directories etc.

 

Thanks for the replies. How would I have put it in ~/Library/LaunchDaemons? What does the ~ mean?

 

In this case your home directory.

See above post about learning Unix.

 

Ah, I found out something. I searched my system.log and found this:

Dec 14 11:11:43 localhost com.apple.launchctl.System[2]: launchctl: Dubious ownership on file (skipping): /Library/LaunchDaemons/hdapm.plist

So it skipped running the file because of Dubious ownership, whatever that means...

 

Got it. Ran this simple line....

sudo mkdir /usr/local/bin && sudo cp /Volumes/hdapm/hdapm /usr/local/bin/ && sudo cp /Volumes/hdapm/hdapm.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/ && sudo /Volumes/hdapm/hdapm disk0 max;


Simple? Why did it take someone on the Apple forum to come up with that? I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!

 

this was a big problem for me with the 120gb seagate that was in the laptop when i bought it.

i fixed it t hough, replaced it with a 7k200. the seagates just have this problem. i bought a dell a while back with the same drive in it, and it parked every 3-4 seconds, really annoying.

 

I agree they make commercials making fun of Vista for having a lot of problems and here we have OSX10.5 making it's own screw ups.

 

Well both my 7K200s do it in my MBP. One external, and one internal. So it's not just the Seagates. And the original Fujitsu 160GB did it too..

 

Hardly fair. Vista has a LOT of problems, whereas OS X 10.5 has a "few" problems.

 

Yes Vista has huge problems but OSX10.5 does as well. It just happens to both when going to a new operating system.

 

Well, certainly not to the calibre of Vista's problems.

 

Ok guys, this has gone off topic. Since the OP has had his issue resolved and this is beginning to get into an OS war, I am closing it.