Hdparm

hdparm is a command line utility to set and view ATA & SATA hard disk drive hardware parameters.

Emerge
Install :

At runtime
Show identification and feature info:

Benchmark drive:

Get current settings. This is not consistent: for some features the current values can be found in the common info, for other features must be called with the right parameters, but without any value, like  :

Set features by put the value directly behind the parameter (without space), e.g. to enable the DMA mode:

The following tables introduces the most common parameters. For a complete list see the hdparm man page.

On boot
To set parameters on boot, edit the configuration file:


 * sdX_args : Set parameters for the given drive (replace sdX with the right device file name)
 * discX_args : Set parameters for the given disc drive.
 * cdromX_args : Set parameters for the given optical drive.
 * all_args : Set parameters for all drives.

E.g. to disable power management for all drivers and enable the DMA feature for :

Afterwards enable the hdparm service: