Re: WD doesn`t use disks with Linux - was Re: Re:Western Digital GreenPower drives and Linux

[Arnd Hannemann <arnd@arndnet.de>]

Jan Engelhardt wrote:
> On Tuesday 2008-05-13 23:20, Arnd Hannemann wrote:
>> Well the answer was probably just from a first level support person so
>> nothing one should get excited about.
>> Anyway to the high Load_Cycle_Count; if I understood the technology
>> correctly the WD GreenPower drives are exactly "Green" because they
> 
> I don't find it Green when I have to buy new disks because of
> their detrimental parking technique.
> 
>> unload the heads on a plastic ramp (no landing zone!) quite often during
> 
> ramp or LZ, it's quite a force with which the head is parked.
> 

Well I'm no expert, but I would say comparing to the normal wear out due
to use (seeking, bearing wear out, vibrations, spin up, bumps) the
factor of a controlled unload/load cycle on a plastic ramp is probably
negligible.

BTW: my hitachi notebook drive, which I believe has a similar
load/unload technology has:
> 193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   057   057   000    Old_age   Always       -       258528/258360

And it didn't fail on me yet...
Of course this is just one data point.

Regards,
Arnd Hannemann