Re: Western Digital GreenPower drives and Linux

["Tvrtko A. Ursulin" <tvrtko@ursulin.net>]

On Wednesday 16 April 2008 12:40:14 Helge Hafting wrote:
> Tvrtko A. Ursulin wrote:
> > 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..
>
> Yuck, how stupid!
> But the solution is simple. Make sure to get a warranty of much more
> than 80 days. Use RAID-1 (or backup often).
> Just let those disks destroy themselves (they _are_ faulty) and
> get new ones all the time.  As long as they make them this stupid, you
> won't have to buy new disks again. Free warranty replacements forever.

:) I am not so enthusiastic about fiddling with my NAS box every couple of 
months.

> To be a bit more constructive, tell them about this strategy. Perhaps
> they get
> busy fixing the firmware?

I have suggested exactly what you say - unfortunately the conversation has 
gone cold since. Maybe they are busy already. :)

Tvrtko