Problem is in do_hdparm() in /etc/init.d/hdparm: if [[ -n ${args:=${all_args} ${!extra_args}} ]] ; then is always true because of the space. Simplest fix is to replace it with if [[ " " != ${args:=${all_args} ${!extra_args}} ]] ; then
Sorry for the spam. Should have searched better first. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 142777 ***