From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Justin Maggard Subject: Re: WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1: harddrive which does crazy unloading Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:36:50 -0700 Message-ID: <150c16851003181136n5f0ddc2cgbc303a300c5dbe1d@mail.gmail.com> References: <201002081933.10144.suse-linux@ml082.pinguin.uni.cc> <4B9D0772.4080306@teksavvy.com> <4B9D7924.1020908@kernel.org> <201003181716.00173.suse-linux@ml082.pinguin.uni.cc> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Return-path: Received: from mail-px0-f198.google.com ([209.85.216.198]:56116 "EHLO mail-px0-f198.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751212Ab0CRSgw convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:36:52 -0400 Received: by pxi36 with SMTP id 36so1707710pxi.21 for ; Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:36:51 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <201003181716.00173.suse-linux@ml082.pinguin.uni.cc> Sender: linux-ide-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org To: Al Bogner Cc: Tejun Heo , Mark Lord , linux-ide@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 9:15 AM, Al Bogner wrote: > Am Montag 15 M=E4rz 2010 01:02:44 schrieb Tejun Heo: >> Hello, >> >> On 03/15/2010 12:57 AM, Mark Lord wrote: >> > No. =A0The vendor-unique commands appear to download a small firmw= are >> > packet to the drive, which reprograms it for a longer "IDLE-3" tim= eout. >> > >> > "IDLE-3" is what WD call this vendor-specific "powersaving" mode, >> > and it is not intended to be adjustable. =A0Except via that little >> > DOS utility hack, and even WD no longer make that available. >> > >> > But I found it by googling for it, and it can change the timeout >> > up to 30 seconds from the default of 8. =A0So I set my WD 1.5TB dr= ive >> > to use 30, and things are now acceptable. >> > >> > Ugh (again)! >> >> I'm currently talking with WD but in general I'm leaning toward simp= ly >> leaving it alone. =A0The manufacturer is actively preventing those >> timesouts from being adjusted and they probably have a pretty good >> rationale for that. =A0If those drives expire before their warrnty, = it's >> a matter between the customer and the vendor. =A0I really don't see = much >> point in trying to circumvent it. =A0Anyways, I'll let you guys know >> where the conversation w/ WDC leads to. > > WD said to me I can send them the disk, but didn't accept, that this = is a > firmware bug. > > Today I got a brandnew WD20EARS (2TB) and it is the same. After about= an 1/2 > hr. I had 12 cycles with an _un_formatted disk. > > I cannot accept, that it should be a warranty issue, because this red= uces the > lifetime _after_ the warranty and increases the possibility to loose = data, at > least for those who don't use a raid. > > I would be happy to have a native linux utility to change this. > I'm not sure if that model supports the advanced power management command or not, but hdparm -B254 should fix it. Sadly, many WD models affected by this don't implement the APM command. -Justin