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hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdX not working; WHY?!?

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I started a thread because it seems that wdidle3 is not working on new BLUE drives and perhaps others. 

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=55898.0

 

I also researched and also started a ticket with WD regarding this and would like to use hdpram to disable APM.  However, it's not working and I am hoping that someone can tell me why and how to possibly fix it?  This is what I get.

 

root@Tower:~# hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdq

/dev/sdq:
setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error
APM_level      = not supported

 

Why am I getting this error?  Is it the drive, or unRAID, or my SAS controllers, or what?!?

 

I am pulling out my hair and any help would be appreciated.

 

Best,

craigr

  • Author

Just found some more info on google about this...

 

Googling reveals that hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdX does not work on WD drives unless you set wdidle3 to disabled.  So now I am in a loop.  The wdidle3 utility does not work so hdpram will not do what I need it to do.

 

This is so frustrating.

 

craigr

Why not just use them as WD intended and maybe consider a different brand next time? It's really not worth losing hair or sleep over. I don't think the setting matters very much in unRAID. If they fail within the warranty period you're covered and if they don't then they'll have done a good job. I admit that on some WD Greens I've used WDIDLE3.EXE to set the timer to 5 minutes but I also have a disk with a load cycle count of over 2.4 million that's still in use. I would never completely disable the Idle3 timer though.

 

  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0012   049   049   000    Old_age   Always       -       22359
10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   060    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       350
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x000a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0012   001   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       2404532

 

  • Author

2404532 wow.  The drives MTBF for this is only 300,000! 

 

I do have the drives set to spin down at one hour through unRAID. 

 

Here is one of my 3T drives where I set the timer disabled.  So I hope to use these for plenty more hours.  It, and all the others are way past warranty.  Also, I have read that if the drive fails under warranty due to load cycles, WD won't honor the warranty because the drive was not used as intended  >:(  I do have the drives set to spin down at one hour through unRAID.

 

4	Start stop count	        0x0032	097	097	000	Old age	Always	Never	3538
5	Reallocated sector count	0x0033	200	200	140	Pre-fail	Always	Never	0
9	Power on hours        	        0x0032	054	054	000	Old age	Always	Never	33929 (3y, 10m, 11d, 17h)
12	Power cycle count	        0x0032	100	100	000	Old age	Always	Never	526
193	Load cycle count	        0x0032	199	199	000	Old age	Always	Never	3303

 

craigr

2404532 wow.  The drives MTBF for this is only 300,000! 

MTBF is a statistic, and like all statistics is absolutely meaningless.

 

If you believe that it actually means something then you're going to wind up celebrating your 800th birthday..

 

http://www.qualityandproducts.com/2010/07/06/the-real-meaning-of-mtbf/

 

That being said, the average for John's drive means that in an hour its wound up parking itself 107 times.  Which is a bit extreme.  One of the many reasons why if anyone ever gives me any WD drive I promptly throw it in the garbage

 

I wouldn't worry about WD not honoring a warranty.  The warranty is for x number of years period.  Their rated MTBF (which again is a meaningless statistic) just means that after 300,000 load cycles they expect half the drives to begin to fail.  MTBF is NOT a statement of warranty in any sense of the word.

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