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EARS has a load cycle count of ~ 150k. Should I be concerned.

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I just started preclearing (1) 1TB EARS and (2) 1TB EADS drives.  The EARS has a load cycle count of ~ 150k.  Should I be concerned and is there anything I can do about that?

I just started preclearing (1) 1TB EARS and (2) 1TB EADS drives.  The EARS has a load cycle count of ~ 150k.  Should I be concerned and is there anything I can do about that?

Yes, you can, but it has nothing to do with the preclear itself, so I'm going to move this thread to the hard-disk forum.

 

Joe L.

There is a program called wdidle3 to adjust the timer for the head parking. A Google search should find lots of info. Basically, you run it and set the timer to a much longer value so that the head doesn't park on short pauses between disk accesses.

 

Peter

There is a program called wdidle3 to adjust the timer for the head parking. A Google search should find lots of info. Basically, you run it and set the timer to a much longer value so that the head doesn't park on short pauses between disk accesses.

 

Peter

 

Is this the version to use? Can someone confirm it won't kill my 2TB EARS?  :D

 

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=609&sid=113

 

"This firmware modifies the behavior of the drive to wait longer before positioning the heads in their park position and turning off unnecessary electronics. This utility is designed to upgrade the firmware of the following hard drives: WD1000FYPS-01ZKB0, WD7500AYPS-01ZKB0, WD7501AYPS-01ZKB0.

 

CAUTION: Do not attempt to run this software on any hard drives other than what is listed above. Please make sure that the computer system is not turned off during the firmware upgrade. Doing so may damage the hard drive beyond repair and your data may be lost."

I've never tried it myself but many people have posted it's "officially" listed to only use with certain drives but it stil workeds with their new EARS drives.

 

I should have pointed out. If this drive reached 150k counts during the pre-clear then it's really acting up. My one EADS has reached 18k counts in 11k hours of operation just for reference. I don't consider that excessive and am not planning on doing anything about it.

 

Peter

  • Author

I should have pointed out. If this drive reached 150k counts during the pre-clear then it's really acting up. My one EADS has reached 18k counts in 11k hours of operation just for reference. I don't consider that excessive and am not planning on doing anything about it.

 

Peter

 

It had 150k from 7367 hours of WHS use.  This was the smart report at the start of the preclearing.

Doesnt say these are new drives, could be pre_clearing themn after re-purposing. In which case load count of 150K is entirely plausible.

 

If you are really concerned I'd give WD a call tell them how old each drive is (SMART report, power on hours) and the load count.

 

I wouldnt consider possibly trashing a drive because the load count is 150K. This isnt an error parameter or indicating there is an issue with the drive. These new fangled green drives reguarly park the heads and shutdown un necessary motors and actuators to save power. The drive in unRAID spend most of their time powered down anyway.

 

If it isnt broken, dont fix it.  

 

 

Disable "Advanced Power Management" using command: hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdx

It will not affect spindown.

 

am I typing this wrong? on a WDC WD10EADS it returns

 

Linux 2.6.32.9-unRAID.
root@storage:# hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda

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

 

I've got an old computer I'm running a preclear of a new WD 2TB EARS on ... pass 2.5 ;-)

I used it to run wdidle3 from freedos before starting the preclear ... as I move drives from my old case to the RPC-4224 I'll pop them into that computer and wdidle3.exe them first ...

 

 

am I typing this wrong? on a WDC WD10EADS it returns

 

Linux 2.6.32.9-unRAID.
root@storage:# hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda

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

...

 

All it means that it's not supported on WD10EADS.

I thought we were talking about EARS drives?

 

This command will not hurt in any case.

Sorry glitched and ran the command on my first WD drive ...

 

Here's the output from EARS drives only

 

WD20EARS-00M
root@storage:/# hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdd
/dev/sdd:
setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Input/output error


WD20EARS-00J
root@storage:/# hdparm -B 255 /dev/sde
/dev/sde: 
setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Input/output error

WD15EARS-00S
root@storage:/# hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdh
/dev/sdh:
setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Input/output error

 

currently on unRaid 4.6, I'll upgrade tomorrow to 4.7 on this server

 

Bobby

 

OK, the excessive cound existed before the pre-clear. So, I would run the drive in unRAID and monitor it. The count may slow right down so you can just use it without having to bother doing anything to stop it.

 

Peter

Sorry glitched and ran the command on my first WD drive ...

 

Here's the output from EARS drives only

 

WD20EARS-00M
root@storage:/# hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdd
/dev/sdd:
setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Input/output error


WD20EARS-00J
root@storage:/# hdparm -B 255 /dev/sde
/dev/sde: 
setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Input/output error

WD15EARS-00S
root@storage:/# hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdh
/dev/sdh:
setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Input/output error

 

currently on unRaid 4.6, I'll upgrade tomorrow to 4.7 on this server

 

Bobby

 

 

Hmm... really strange. This is my output:

 

root@storage:~# hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled
APM_level      = off

 

This is what I get on all my HDDs - WD, Samsung, Hitachi

 

PS: Just noticed you called yours "storage" also  ;)

I'm guessing it might be the motherboard or the bios ... your way is much less hassle  ;)

 

I'm using 4 in 3 cooler master stacker drive cages ... I guess it's time to move stuff over to the RPC-4224 ...

 

and in transit I can use wdidle3 on another computer one EARS at a time ...

  • 2 weeks later...

Disable "Advanced Power Management" using command: hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdx

It will not affect spindown.

 

 

Saw this command in a Newegg review of a WD20EARS:

hdparm -S 242 /dev/sdX

 

Is it similar to yours?

Disable "Advanced Power Management" using command: hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdx

It will not affect spindown.

 

 

Saw this command in a Newegg review of a WD20EARS:

hdparm -S 242 /dev/sdX

 

Is it similar to yours?

 

No. -S is used to set the spindown timer.

-B disables advanced power management and has no effect on spindown. It does however disables annoying head parking when spindle is still rotating.

Thanks for the clarification. I'll apply this right away.

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