Excesive Load Cycling

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This is about the old "hd killing bug" about the excesive load cycling in laptop's hd cuz of aggresive power management.

I already posted about this before, but now I installed Ubuntu 9.04 and the problem is still there. I am getting +16 per ten minutes, while in windows vista I get just +4 in the same time. I did some calculus and in 3 years of using 4 hours a day my laptop on battery power in Ubuntu i would have a 526500 value. I dont know if this value is ok or not.

Besides, the hdparm solution i did while using Hardy Hearon (Minbuntu) actually fixed this but I then got RAW (Read After Write Errors) and decided to stop using it.

While on AC the Load/Cycle (obviously?) do not increment. I updated acpi on my laptop, plz tell me if this might have triggered this thing on me, as I have been told in this forums that 9.04 does have this fixed.

I would highly appreciate if you could give me a solution for this, and sorry if I bother you all too much, but I really want to use Linux on my hp.

[mikez]

If you wear out your hdd - you will be the first to do so - post on the Ripley's web-site.
- - - -
The references you are reading (& linking to) are propagating an Urban Legend built out of
(very) old information that only applies to arrays of SCSI disks in file storage units
written by wanna-be experts. Remember, on the Internet, facts are optional.

Just trust your hdd manufacturer's warranty - if still worried, install a hdd with a five year warranty.

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If you wear out your hdd - you will be the first to do so - post on the Ripley's web-site.
- - - -
The references you are reading (& linking to) are propagating an Urban Legend built out of
(very) old information that only applies to arrays of SCSI disks in file storage units
written by wanna-be experts. Remember, on the Internet, facts are optional.

Just trust your hdd manufacturer's warranty - if still worried, install a hdd with a five year warranty.

Hey, that was mean. i didn't intend to propagate wrong info, I just wanted to rest asure this thing ain't affecting me. We got the same laptops, thats why we are here in this forum, so I tought someone might want to check this out and tell me: "oh, no dude, that's all right, it wont harm you". Besides, you didnt answer my question.

Anyway, thanks for your help mikez, and dont take this personal n_n'

[PsynoKhi0]

While on AC the Load/Cycle (obviously?) do not increment.

That's what the patch fixed AFAIK, laptop-mode (among other things) now runs the HDD's Advanced Power Management (APM) at the least conservative setting (translating into few/no load cycle count increments) when on AC.

BTW, I wish people stopped calling it the "hd killing bug"... It's not a bug per se, Ubuntu used to never ever fiddle with the factory settings for power management on HDDs. The higher load cycle count is (as I see it) an unfortunate side effect of filesystem journaling.

If you want to experiment with load cycle count, you first need to get the specifications for your hard drive.
Check your model number. I got mine from smartmontools (sudo apt-get install smartmontools)
Then:

sudo smartctl -a /dev/sd(x) | grep Device

where x is the last letter corresponding to your HDD, usually "a" ("sudo fdisk -l" to be sure).

Mine was HTS543212L9A300.

Go to http://www.hitachigst.com and do a search on the above string.
I've found the following for my HDD:
Certified for 600,000 Load/Unload Cycles
3 APM levels:
C0h - FEh ... Active (low powersaving, few/no load cycles)
80h - BFh ... Low power Idle
01h - 7Fh ... Standby (most powersaving, ticking like a bomb)

A decimal value from those ranges is what you need to feed /etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode.conf
FE (hex) -> 254 (dec): standard on AC APM value in Ubuntu starting from 8.04.2
80 (hex) -> 128 (dec): standard factory setting, nicer to battery, incurs faster Load Cycle Count increments, however safer on the go as the head doesn't sit on your HDD's plater (too much shaking endangers your data)

What is the output of

sudo hdparm -I /dev/sd(x) | grep Advanced

when you're on battery?
If it's 128, you're pretty much out of luck since 128 and 254 cover 2 acceptable APM ranges for your HDD, assuming it's the same series as mine.

Otherwise, try

sudo hdparm -B (value) /dev/sd(x)

with "value" being a decimal number, taken from the spec ranges, higher than your current one (but still below 254)

Edit: How did you measure your Load Cycle Count in both OSes? I remember reading somewhere that the output from e.g. smartmontools in GNU/Linux could be wrongly interpreted depending on the HDD... e.g. 2 increments from smartmontools could actually mean 1 Load and 1 Unload. So the critical value for 600k as per the manufacturer instructions would translate into 1,200k in smartmontools.

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PsynoKahi0 thanks for your corncern. I have a FUJITSU FUJITSU MHZ2120BH G2. I visited Fujitsu's site and got the Data Sheet for mine. There are two problems:

I cant find the information for my max Load/Unload Cycles. Besides, I cant find the information you used to now what values you should put along with the hdparm command.

Here is the link to my hd's information:

http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/c...20bh-sata.html

And I used Everest on Windows Vista.

[PsynoKhi0]

First hit on Google for "MHZ2120BH load/unload cycle"

http://193.128.183.41/home/v3__produ...&inf=fsp&wg=30

600,000 cycles

The manual was there:
http://193.128.183.41/home/v3__ftrac...nual_m160_.pdf

A quick scan through the document:
SC = C0h - FEh : Mode-0 Active Idle → Low Power Idle
SC = 80h - BFh : Mode-1 Active Idle → Low Power Idle (Default)
SC = 01h - 7Fh : Mode-2 Active Idle → Low Power Idle → Standby

Bottom line, same thing as with the Hitachi.

[/hack]

First hit on Google for "MHZ2120BH load/unload cycle"

http://193.128.183.41/home/v3__produ...&inf=fsp&wg=30

600,000 cycles

The manual was there:
http://193.128.183.41/home/v3__ftrac...nual_m160_.pdf

A quick scan through the document:
SC = C0h - FEh : Mode-0 Active Idle → Low Power Idle
SC = 80h - BFh : Mode-1 Active Idle → Low Power Idle (Default)
SC = 01h - 7Fh : Mode-2 Active Idle → Low Power Idle → Standby

Bottom line, same thing as with the Hitachi.

Hey, thanks! I was just trying to download the pdf one, but sadly the internet connection at my college is rather slow, so...hehe. Well, what do you reckon I should do? I just did some testing and I consume like 67 cycles per 1 hour, and doing some calculus, pretending I use 4 hours of battery power everyday of the year I would get 97820 cycles per year, so in six years I would consume 586920, wich looks pretty nice. Do you reckon I should do any fix or just leave it like that?

[c0ldb00t]

you should take it easy and not let things like this concern you. if you do, you're bound to keep on worrying and calculating such things long after the lifetime of your replacement hdd is over.

[PsynoKhi0]

Well, what do you reckon I should do?

Well, have you checked the current "on battery" hdparm setting as I mentioned in my first post?

Also:
- Unless I'm mistaken, the rated load/unload cycle for a mobile HDD works pretty much like MTBF. It's not a hard boundary, not to be confused with the emergency head parking (20,000 cycles, and that's it).

- Your HDD could die before for whatever reason.

[/hack]

Also:
- Unless I'm mistaken, the rated load/unload cycle for a mobile HDD works pretty much like MTBF. It's not a hard boundary, not to be confused with the emergency head parking (20,000 cycles, and that's it).

- Your HDD could die before for whatever reason.

I dont understand this part u_u' sorry, can you plz explain me?