diff --git a/HISTORY b/HISTORY
index 6139e864..35be5b3d 100644
--- a/HISTORY
+++ b/HISTORY
@@ -640,3 +640,5 @@ Video Disk Recorder Revision History
   that turns off the video disk when it is not used, and therefore needs
   to write the EPG file to a ramdisk (or turn off writing it alltogether).
   See 'vdr --help' for details.
+- Making sure the disk is up and running before starting recording (this
+  is important for systems that turn off the video disk when it is not used).
diff --git a/dvbapi.c b/dvbapi.c
index 744eaf41..7f728b61 100644
--- a/dvbapi.c
+++ b/dvbapi.c
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
  * DVD support initially written by Andreas Schultz <aschultz@warp10.net>
  * based on dvdplayer-0.5 by Matjaz Thaler <matjaz.thaler@guest.arnes.si>
  *
- * $Id: dvbapi.c 1.103 2001/08/10 14:54:21 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: dvbapi.c 1.104 2001/08/11 10:17:26 kls Exp $
  */
 
 //#define DVDDEBUG        1
@@ -3269,6 +3269,10 @@ bool cDvbApi::StartRecord(const char *FileName, int Ca, int Priority)
   if (!MakeDirs(FileName, true))
      return false;
 
+  // Make sure the disk is up and running:
+
+  SpinUpDisk(FileName);
+
   // Create recording buffer:
 
   recordBuffer = new cRecordBuffer(this, FileName, vPid, aPid1, aPid2, dPid1, dPid2);
diff --git a/tools.c b/tools.c
index 6b08d65d..bf07ad07 100644
--- a/tools.c
+++ b/tools.c
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  * See the main source file 'vdr.c' for copyright information and
  * how to reach the author.
  *
- * $Id: tools.c 1.36 2001/08/11 08:52:27 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: tools.c 1.37 2001/08/11 11:14:19 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #define _GNU_SOURCE
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 #if defined(DEBUG_OSD)
 #include <ncurses.h>
 #endif
+#include <stdlib.h>
 #include <sys/time.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 
@@ -315,6 +316,38 @@ char *ReadLink(const char *FileName)
   return TargetName ? strdup(TargetName) : NULL;
 }
 
+bool SpinUpDisk(const char *FileName)
+{
+  static char *buf = NULL;
+  for (int n = 0; n < 10; n++) {
+      delete buf;
+      if (DirectoryOk(FileName))
+         asprintf(&buf, "%s/vdr-%06d", *FileName ? FileName : ".", n);
+      else
+         asprintf(&buf, "%s.vdr-%06d", FileName, n);
+      if (access(buf, F_OK) != 0) { // the file does not exist
+         timeval tp1, tp2;
+         gettimeofday(&tp1, NULL);
+         int f = open(buf, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH);
+         // O_SYNC doesn't work on all file systems
+         if (f >= 0) {
+            close(f);
+            system("sync");
+            remove(buf);
+            gettimeofday(&tp2, NULL);
+            double seconds = (((long long)tp2.tv_sec * 1000000 + tp2.tv_usec) - ((long long)tp1.tv_sec * 1000000 + tp1.tv_usec)) / 1000000.0;
+            if (seconds > 0.5)
+               dsyslog(LOG_INFO, "SpinUpDisk took %.2f seconds\n", seconds);
+            return true;
+            }
+         else
+            LOG_ERROR_STR(buf);
+         }
+      }
+  esyslog(LOG_ERR, "ERROR: SpinUpDisk failed");
+  return false;
+}
+
 // --- cFile -----------------------------------------------------------------
 
 bool cFile::files[FD_SETSIZE] = { false };
diff --git a/tools.h b/tools.h
index b4a0cb67..6baaff30 100644
--- a/tools.h
+++ b/tools.h
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  * See the main source file 'vdr.c' for copyright information and
  * how to reach the author.
  *
- * $Id: tools.h 1.26 2001/05/20 08:29:45 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: tools.h 1.27 2001/08/11 09:52:14 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #ifndef __TOOLS_H
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ bool MakeDirs(const char *FileName, bool IsDirectory = false);
 bool RemoveFileOrDir(const char *FileName, bool FollowSymlinks = false);
 bool RemoveEmptyDirectories(const char *DirName, bool RemoveThis = false);
 char *ReadLink(const char *FileName);
+bool SpinUpDisk(const char *FileName);
 
 class cFile {
 private: