Load_Cycle_Count running crazy?

[DanielM]

Hi.
Anyone here that can enlighten me about the nature of Load_Cycle_Count? Today I noticed that in the last three months it has dropped like a maniac (Watch the red line at my munin log here http://ideel.nl/bubba/bubba/daniel.bubba-smart_sda.html). If it continues like this it will hit the floor in another three months. Don't really know what that means. Did a lot of googling and I read different answers everywhere about this being a problem or not.

This is the disk that was shipped with my B3, a WD10EARS. Some more numbers:

Code: Select all

root@b3:~# smartctl -a /dev/sda|grep Load_Cycle_Count
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   060   060   000    Old_age   Always       -       421184

So. 421184 cycles in three months. Is it a problem?

/Daniel

[Ubi]

before I say somthing dumb; how is this issue different from that other thread on WD green drives and loadcycleCount a while back?

[DanielM]

Ok. I know what you were about to say. This makes us even, right?

Still, I think it's stupid that this doesn't seem to be configurable. I couldn't care less about shock protection in my B3. It's fixed to the wall...

/Daniel

[Binkem]

My Bubba2 is going on a load cycle count of 3 million without any problems.

193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 2920666

[DanielM]

My Bubba2 is going on a load cycle count of 3 million without any problems.

193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 2920666

That is good to hear my friend! Guess this simply is a non-issue then...

/Daniel

[Ubi]

It seems you can indeed configure it.
http://longpress.org/i/?tag=wdidle3

and the (friggin) DOS* software
http://support.wdc.com/product/download ... 09&sid=113

[DanielM]

It seems you can indeed configure it.
http://longpress.org/i/?tag=wdidle3

and the (friggin) DOS* software
http://support.wdc.com/product/download ... 09&sid=113

Found that too. But for the first the word DOS doesn't fit well into my household. Secondly, there's this (apparantly an answer from wd when being asked about the issue):

"Unfortunately The WDIdle Utility is no longer available from Western Digital. The problem here is that WDidle is a tool which was developed for older drives but still works on some new drives. It was not designed for this and so the outcome can be unpredictable, hence we do not support it. It can be found throughout the Internet but is no longer distributed by WD. By using WDIdle your drive's firmware is altered and the warranty will be voided. The reason why this feature (IntelliPark) was created and placed on the drives, was in order to lower power consumption in order to be more eco-friendly. The unit will not encounter a sudden death due to this feature."

So... If I need to use a DOS tool which breaks the warranty, I'd rather live with a high LCC. Guess the red line in my munin will hit the floor in some months and then stay there...

/Daniel

[Ubi]

Sure. Kinda weird that this application is in fact still distributed by WD (at least I guess that wdc.com link above is not a hobby project)

[DanielM]

Sure. Kinda weird that this application is in fact still distributed by WD (at least I guess that wdc.com link above is not a hobby project)

Hmm. Good point.

So now I still don't know if it would be a good idea to put the disk into another computer just to run wdidle on it...

/Daniel

[RandomUsername]

I wouldn't worry. I had confirmation from WD that this shouldn't affect the lifespan of the drive and that the warranty would still be honoured regardless of the LLC. Assuming you have a Green Caviar I think you'd be losing some of the power saving benefits if you started changing it.