diff --git a/smartmontools/CHANGELOG b/smartmontools/CHANGELOG
index a9b57ee5728b2f6decd6d97e762beac190aa9fa5..ce320f883dd87c7a9c1403a9e4a74f66efca4da3 100644
--- a/smartmontools/CHANGELOG
+++ b/smartmontools/CHANGELOG
@@ -43,6 +43,9 @@ NOTES FOR FUTURE RELEASES: see TODO file.
 
 <DEVELOPERS: ADDITIONS TO THE CHANGE LOG GO JUST BELOW HERE, PLEASE>
 
+  [CF] Increase SCSI_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT from 6 to 20 seconds to avoid
+       timeouts when a disk spins up from standby mode.
+
   [CF] Add USB ID of AcomData 504 (OnSpec USB bridge).
 
   [AS] Correcting manual pages (FreeBSD related)
diff --git a/smartmontools/scsicmds.h b/smartmontools/scsicmds.h
index 8a7211443d60c60b5063300ad85641222e7e2925..3fdd453802c46102752fe3da74dde69348e8349f 100644
--- a/smartmontools/scsicmds.h
+++ b/smartmontools/scsicmds.h
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
 #ifndef SCSICMDS_H_
 #define SCSICMDS_H_
 
-#define SCSICMDS_H_CVSID "$Id: scsicmds.h,v 1.69 2009/06/24 04:10:10 dpgilbert Exp $\n"
+#define SCSICMDS_H_CVSID "$Id$\n"
 
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
@@ -273,7 +273,8 @@ Documentation, see http://www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/prodspecs.htm */
 
 
 /* SCSI command timeout values (units are seconds) */
-#define SCSI_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT    6               /* 6 seconds should be ample */
+#define SCSI_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT    20  // should be longer than the spin up time
+                                    // of a disk in standby mode.
 #define SCSI_TIMEOUT_SELF_TEST  (5 * 60 * 60)   /* allow max 5 hours for */
                                             /* extended foreground self test */