ubuntu-server 7.10, what might be preventing my USB drive from sleeping?

[Chris G]

On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 07:17:47AM -0700, David Vincent wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> Chris G wrote:
> > I have a new ubuntu server 7.10 installation used as a NAS system in
> > my garage.  It has a 500Gb external USB drive connected to it.
> > 
> > Something is preventing the external USB drive from going into sleep
> > mode, i.e. something is accessing the USB drive at intervals such that
> > it thinks it shouldn't power down.  Previously when I used the network
> > drive via its ethernet interface (not from the ubuntu server system)
> > it did go into sleep mode.
> > 
> > The ubuntu server installation was done without the USB drive even
> > connected so there's nothing apart from backups on the external drive.
> > 
> > Can anyone suggest what might be keeping the USB drive awake and/or
> > ways of diagnosing what's keeping it awake?
> 
> Since it is shared, is anything accessing that share?  Maybe something
> trying to index it?
> 
Not that I can think of, it's just a backup with a cron job backing up
to it in the small hours.

-- 
Chris Green