Comment 1 for bug 35449

Ok I have a temporary fix plus we can narrow the problem down to gdm maybe.

This is the first time in 2 years I have ever heard my desktop hard drive sleep!

Here's my temporary solution:

1. Restart the computer.
2. In the boot loader choose "Recovery Mode"
3. When boot is finished execute:
    Xorg & DISPLAY=:0 xterm &
4. When in Xorg/xterm run these commands:
    gnome-settings-daemon &
    gnome-panel &
    nautilus &
    metacity &

That's it. You'll have a perfectly silent hard drive when idle and if idle long enough the hard drive will dose off to sleep.

Now my desktops and laptop are happy. My laptop will definitely have better battery life!

We need a real fix. I'm not satisified about this yet.