From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Tvrtko A. Ursulin" Subject: Re: Western Digital GreenPower drives and Linux Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:48:08 +0100 Message-ID: <200804100848.08442.tvrtko@ursulin.net> References: <200804092118.35501.tvrtko@ursulin.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from mk-outboundfilter-4.mail.uk.tiscali.com ([212.74.114.32]:56264 "EHLO mk-outboundfilter-4.mail.uk.tiscali.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753871AbYDJHrh (ORCPT ); Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:47:37 -0400 In-Reply-To: <200804092118.35501.tvrtko@ursulin.net> Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-ide-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org To: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Wednesday 09 April 2008 21:18:35 Tvrtko A. Ursulin wrote: > I got one of them (WD5000AACS) recently and to my horror after less than > three days of being power on this is what I saw: > > 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 66 > 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 197 197 000 Old_age Always - 10233 > > At this rate the disk would reach it's design limit for load/unload cycles > in around 80 days. Not good - so I implemented a lame workaround of keeping > disk busy every couple of seconds - hopefully that won't kill it sooner > that unloads would.. > > I am also currently talking with first line of WD's tech support trying to > get some data on how exactly those drives manage head unloading, but that > may not lead anywhere useful. I got back from WD's tech support and received a DOS utility which can control this drive feature, apparently using vendor specific commands. With it head unload timer can be disabled or set to a period between 100ms and 25.5s. Of course I asked for more than a DOS utility, but the question really is how was this feature intended to work with Windows for example, is there something there which would prevent such rapid load/unload cycle growth, and why isn't it documented somewhere? I am kind off hoping that someone from WD is reading this list and will notice this in case my effort with tech support fails. Tvrtko