IDLE3CTL(8)                 System Manager's Manual                IDLE3CTL(8)



NAME
       idle3ctl - disable, get or set the idle3 timer on Western Digital HDD

SYNOPSIS
       idle3ctl [ flags ] [device] ..

DESCRIPTION
       idle3ctl can disable, get and set the value of the infamous idle3 timer
       found on recent Western Digital Hard Disk Drives.  Idle3ctl can be used
       as an alternative to the official wdidle3.exe proprietary utility,
       without the need to reboot in a DOS environement.  Idle3ctl is an
       independant project, unrelated in any way to Western Digital Corp.

       THIS SOFTWARE IS EXPERIMENTAL, NOT WELL TESTED AND ACCESSES LOW LEVEL
       INFORMATION OF YOUR HARDDRIVE. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

OPTIONS
       When no flags are given, -g is assumed.

       -h     Display help

       -V     Show version and exit

       -v     activate verbose output, mainly useful for debugging.

       --force
              force execution even if no Western Digital HDD are detected

       -g     get raw idle3 timer value

       -g100  get idle3 timer value as wdidle3 v1.00 would display it

       -g103  get idle3 timer value as wdidle3 v1.03 would display it

       -d     disable idle3 timer

       -s<value>
              set idle3 timer raw value. Value must be an integer between 1
              and 255.  The idle3 timer is set in 0.1s for the 1-128 range,
              and in 30s for the 129-255 range.

BUGS
       Please report any bugs on the sourceforge tracker at
       https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=329372&atid=1381968

EXIT STATUS
       idle3ctl will return zero on success and non zero on failure.

AUTHOR
       idle3ctl has been written by Christophe Bothamy <cbothamy at
       users.sf.net>.

SEE ALSO
       http://idle3-tools.sourceforce.net Idle3-tools website

       http://www.wdc.com/
              Western Digital website

Version 0.9                      January 2011                      IDLE3CTL(8)