FreeBSD: Clicking noise WDC WD5000LPVX SATA 3 Drive on FreeBSD 9.1
same like in Linux:
APM Funktion starts/stops the heads and make click sounds, not needed on a Server. To disable like in Linux with hdparm on FreeBSD do:
If you want to disable APM (Advanced Power Management) on your hard drive to reduce heads movements and increase your hard drive life you can do that very easy by using ataidle app from FreeBSD’s Ports:
cd /usr/ports/sysutils/ataidle make install clean; rehash
Then to disable APM on your hard drive run:
ataidle -P 0 /dev/ad0
We can start ataidle app at FreeBSD boot time by adding the following lines in /etc/rc.conf (the second line correspond to our previous command that we want to run at boot time):
ataidle_enable="YES" ataidle_devices="ada0" ataidle_ada0="-P 0"
Remark: most Server SATA Controllers change HDD Names like from ad6 to ada0, read last lines of „dmesg“ and see, „Drive ada0: Previously was known as ad6“ Message!!!