IDLE3CTL(8)

✨ IDLE3CTL ✨ (section 8, System Manager's Manual)

okay bestie, sit down, we're doing low-level hard drive surgery today 💅 this is idle3ctl — the icon, the legend, the little tool that handles the infamous idle3 timer on recent Western Digital hard disk drives 🎀

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🌸 NAME 🌸

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

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

idle3ctl [ flags ] [device] ..

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so basically, idle3ctl can disable, get and set the value of the infamous idle3 timer found on recent Western Digital Hard Disk Drives. no cap, this timer is notorious.

the whole point is that idle3ctl can be used as an alternative to the official wdidle3.exe proprietary utility — and the slay part? you don't have to reboot into a DOS environment 😭🫶 truly a gift.

also important: idle3ctl is an independent project, unrelated in any way to Western Digital Corp. we are not affiliated, we are just girls who care about their drives 💀

⚠️ THIS SOFTWARE IS EXPERIMENTAL, NOT WELL TESTED AND ACCESSES LOW LEVEL INFORMATION OF YOUR HARDRIVE. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. — like, for real for real, bestie. low level. your harddrive. be careful 🙈

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

when no flags are given, -g is assumed. (yes, it just defaults to get mode. main character behaviour honestly.)

• -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.

🧚 little vibe check on that last one: the value has to be an integer between 1 and 255, and the unit it's interpreted in changes depending on which half of the range you're in. 1-128 = 0.1s steps, 129-255 = 30s steps. that's just how it is, bestie.

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😭 BUGS 😭

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

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⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

idle3ctl will return zero on success and non zero on failure. simple as that, periodt.

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

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

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• http://idle3-tools.sourceforge.net — Idle3-tools website
• http://www.wdc.com/ — Western Digital website

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okay that's the whole page, you ate it, you read it, you're basically a hard drive whisperer now 🎀💖

Version 0.9 · January 2011 · written by the idle3-tools girlies on the System Manager's Manual beat — bye bestie, go forth and -g responsibly 🦋✨