High Load cycle in WD Green Caviar Hard Drive.

[Martyna]

I bought a WD Caviar Green for my new team. I can choose the green line, due to its low noise level. But I'm not sure it was a good choice. Yes, the unit is very quiet and is fast enough for me. But I had two strange system crashes during the last 3 weeks (with my old computer did not have a system crash in 7 years!) Where the kernel error reporting E / S during disk operations - following a reboot everything was fine again. I made a file system verify SMART self-test and no errors found. There are similar reports in this forum that make me believe that the Caviar Green is responsible for these accidents. But today I discovered something that worries me. I looked at the SMART data and discovered a load cycle count too high for 1.5 operations this month.

[Virtuous]

I learned that it is a known issue - there are numerous reports in all. Caviar Green puts his head in park after 8 seconds of downtime. Now, when the operating system periodically performs a disk operation of the head is parked and not enduringly parked in a low load system makes loading cycle have to explode, so it is a desktop over a server problem. There rumors the Caviar Green desktop product advertised as I wonder what will happen when you go back the WD drive to put back a few months, when certainly have failed!

[Arjuna3]

There are reports that WD is aware of the problem, but not officially admitting the problem. When communicating with the support of WD will send you a DOS tool called wdidle3 that lets you change the timer settings. I suppose you use the vendor-specific commands. I contacted them yesterday - no response yet. I found a copy online, but I will not use software from unsafe sources. Today I did a test: I can configure a scheduled task that has recorded the number of charge cycles every 30 minutes. In my idle computer (which was at work) I frightening results.

2011-08-27 10:00:01 37605
2011-08-27 10:30:02 37665
2011-08-27 11:00:01 37725
2011-08-27 11:30:01 37785
2011-08-27 12:00:01 37845
2011-08-27 12:30:01 37905

[Czeslaw]

I would like to return it for a non-green. This feature IntelliPark is total garbage. You can save a few mW, but the loss of data and significant risks slowing down the unit. Caviar Green drives products are designed poorly. Why have not implemented a smart algorithm that controls how the operating system accesses the unit and adjusts the idle time of a sane value? I'm sure parking and unpacking head every few seconds does increase energy and destroy the unit.

[pddaugusto]

What if you make a background work for intentionally touching the disk every 6 seconds to prevent the parking Or, you can activate the laptop to get the kernel to stop constantly to empty the buffers do not have to. This is the way to get a disk to keep spinning down when you put him to sleep. I would say that activate the laptop and when I go out, manually tell the drive to sleep with hdparm-y. In this way turns down and stays spinning, without charge / discharge cycles, while you are not around.

[samar69]

Do not have the load cycle count high, but my disc is just for storage. Like you said the problems arise when the operating system periodically performs a disk operation. That said, I'm considering the option of returning it. In any case, next Friday I'll buy that Aldi Medion external as a backup of my WD15EARS, because I really want to know how long this last.

[Mindstorm]

I am optimistic - why the unit returns to its old behavior? Only three charge cycles since yesterday - that matches the power cycles. As their work. Well, how long the drive to survive? Nobody knows - it may break after only 100 000 charge cycles or even survive 1 000 000, the probability of failure increases considerably when the design is limited overcome.

[Biloxi]

Today I received an interesting email support WD. Wdidle3 I asked two weeks ago. Now they are telling me that I can give a tool to change the power saving settings! And I can tell that this was the last album I bought from WD!

[Udyan]

I've been dealing with the same problem (high load_cycle_count) and I would greatly appreciate someone writing and other WD20EARS WD Green on the list of well-matched drives wdidle3! There is no logical reason for this advice is available on WD Green FAQ.

[Jabeena]

I emailed Western Digital support and "insisted that" there is no way you can change or disable the units of EARS. It seems that kids use to Western Digital needs to work together in an atm. Uses is losing a lot of credibility. I do not see why it is so difficult the situation. It only provides an option that can allow people who do not want the head of parking off. And make clear to everyone.

[Erubiel]

Sorry, I never said that WDIDLE3 Autopark turned off. But it is clear that this unit is not suitable for you, since you cannot turn on Autopark. I recommend looking for something else.