Help me spin-down a disk

I've got an 80GB Maxtor disk (hdb) that I use infrequently. I'd like to keep it sleeping except when I want to mount it.

I tried "hdparm -Y /dev/hdb" which seemed to work,
then "hdparm -C /dev/hdb" to check the status. The second hdparm never returned (^C worked) and I found the following in the system log:

Jan 27 21:02:04 Godzilla kernel: hdb: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
Jan 27 21:02:04 Godzilla kernel:
Jan 27 21:02:04 Godzilla kernel: ide: failed opcode was: 0xe5
Jan 27 21:02:04 Godzilla kernel: hda: status timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
Jan 27 21:02:04 Godzilla kernel:
Jan 27 21:02:04 Godzilla kernel: ide: failed opcode was: unknown
Jan 27 21:02:04 Godzilla kernel: hda: DMA disabled
Jan 27 21:02:04 Godzilla kernel: hdb: DMA disabled
Jan 27 21:02:04 Godzilla kernel: hda: drive not ready for command
Jan 27 21:02:04 Godzilla kernel: ide0: reset: success

The box seems OK, and I successfully re-enabled DMA on hda. Is this just normal behavior or should I file a bug report?

Is there a better way to make a disk sleep than using hdparm? I've heard that modern IDE drives aren't intended for 24/7 operation and should be kept spun-down as much as possible, opinions?

Thanks,

John