Re: WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1: harddrive which does crazy unloading

[Al Bogner <suse-linux@ml082.pinguin.uni.cc>]

Am Montag 15 März 2010 01:02:44 schrieb Tejun Heo:
> Hello,
> 
> On 03/15/2010 12:57 AM, Mark Lord wrote:
> > No.  The vendor-unique commands appear to download a small firmware
> > packet to the drive, which reprograms it for a longer "IDLE-3" timeout.
> >
> > "IDLE-3" is what WD call this vendor-specific "powersaving" mode,
> > and it is not intended to be adjustable.  Except 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.  So I set my WD 1.5TB drive
> > to use 30, and things are now acceptable.
> >
> > Ugh (again)!
> 
> I'm currently talking with WD but in general I'm leaning toward simply
> leaving it alone.  The manufacturer is actively preventing those
> timesouts from being adjusted and they probably have a pretty good
> rationale for that.  If those drives expire before their warrnty, it's
> a matter between the customer and the vendor.  I really don't see much
> point in trying to circumvent it.  Anyways, 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 reduces 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.


Device Model:     WDC WD20EARS-00S8B1
Firmware Version: 80.00A80
User Capacity:    2.000.398.934.016 bytes

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  
WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   100   253   051    Pre-fail  Always       
-       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   100   253   021    Pre-fail  Always       
-       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       
-       4
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       
-       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       
-       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       
-       0
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       
-       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       
-       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       
-       3
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       
-       2
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       
-       12
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   116   116   000    Old_age   Always       
-       36
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       
-       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       
-       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       
0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   253   000    Old_age   Always       
-       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       
0



Al