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

[Bart Silverstrim]

Karl Larsen wrote:

>     I have a hard drive that I connect to my Ubuntu using a USB cable. I 
> works fine and I reach it at /media/disk/. What keeps it running is a 
> power supply. The HD will run until I turn it off with a switch.
> 
>     So I don't understand your problem :-)

The drive should be powering down when it's not in use for an extended 
period of time.  It saves wear on the bearings, minimizes power usage, 
helps a little with cooling, and extends the life of the drive.

When it is sleeping it can be re-accessed (from something as simple as 
an "ls" listing) and will wake up again.  You know it was sleeping because
a) it spins up audibly
b) there is a pause between you issuing the command and the drive waking 
up and your command beginning

If it doesn't spin down, your power save features are disabled, the 
drive doesn't support power saving (unlikely but possible, I suppose) or 
you have something periodically accessing the drive so it is staying 
"awake" and ready for quicker access.