Re: WD GreenPower & Load_Cycle_Count

[Redeeman <redeeman@metanurb.dk>]

On Tue, 2008-12-23 at 08:53 -0600, Matt Garman wrote:
> A while ago I stumbled on a thread on the Linux kernel mailing list
> titled "Western Digital GreenPower drives and Linux".  It's easy to
> find via google, or use this link[1].
> 
> The gist is that if you look at the SMART attributes on these
> drives, chances are you'll see a really high Load_Cycle_Count.  I do
> for my WD GP drives.
> 
> I posted[2] on the ars technica forums a while back with the same
> topic.  The suggestion in the last post was to use hdparm's
> spindown_time (-S) parameter to change the drive's behavior.  I
> tried this, and it does in seem to keep that Load_Cycle_Count
> variable from increasing so quickly.
> 
> But the original thread on LKML made it sound like the only way to
> solve the problem was with Western Digital's Windows-only
> "wdidle3.exe" utility.

It has also been suggested that on the RE2-GP drives there is a jumper
setting which stops it from happening. As to whether that actually works
or not, I do not know.

> 
> Another question is this: does that Load_Cycle_Count SMART attribute
> really correspond to the number of head parks that have a specified
> ceiling (300k for consumer drives, 600k for enterprise/RE2)?  Some
> of the threads I've read suggest that the SMART attribute talks
> about "soft" head parks (moving the head away from the platters),
> and WD's spec is for "hard" parks (where the head actually comes to
> rest, as in power down).
> 
> Here's another interesting thread on the topic on silentpcreview[3].
> 
> Anyway, I haven't been able to find a conclusive answer to this on
> the web.  Just wondering if anyone on the list has any more info.
> 
> Thanks,
> Matt
> 
> [1] http://groups.google.com/group/linux.kernel/browse_thread/thread/505ccf760023d132/7e4f4e996f911efd
> 
> [2] http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/24609792/m/481009715931?r=481009715931
> 
> [3] http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=51401
> 
> 
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