From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1759490AbYDJPCB (ORCPT ); Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:02:01 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1759337AbYDJPBl (ORCPT ); Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:01:41 -0400 Received: from wr-out-0506.google.com ([64.233.184.237]:31223 "EHLO wr-out-0506.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1759321AbYDJPBk (ORCPT ); Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:01:40 -0400 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=P6rTckGzMNPZ9eZ+twiGu0qsBUVu42RYY1jdxygkLpHvgWwaebDw8Ou/K+PdC+h4Tgi/ZOZU8lszZgbvggil/CPmXGwna77aLuSEaJ7NvdloB8IgWh23iLPEHwV3KlSuXWu6CZDXbgCa765Ufjs4S8/IJ5lzw0QbFEIdSHK9Cg4= Message-ID: Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:01:38 +0200 From: "Christian Pernegger" To: "Tvrtko A. Ursulin" Subject: Re: Western Digital GreenPower drives and Linux Cc: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <1207831481.1514.8.camel@localhost> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <200804092118.35501.tvrtko@ursulin.net> <200804100848.08442.tvrtko@ursulin.net> <1207831481.1514.8.camel@localhost> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org [ Keep me CCd on this, please. ] > Those fancy new WD GreenPower drives seem to be heavily suffering from the > rapidly increasing head load/unload problem. [...] I got one of them > (WD5000AACS) recently and to my horror [...] I have the same disks, only with more warranty and supposedly "enterprise" firmware (WD1000FYPS). The bug is the same, though, on all four of them (~ 9 cycles /hour): 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 917 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 198 198 000 Old_age Always - 8025 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 906 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 198 198 000 Old_age Always - 7908 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 907 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 198 198 000 Old_age Always - 8051 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 918 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 198 198 000 Old_age Always - 7869 > I got the _DOS_ utility from WD which issues vendor specific commands to > control that feature. Have they confirmed it's a bug? I have no idea how often the disks should do that. > [...] With it the unload feature can be either disabled or timer set from > 100ms to 25.5 seconds. But obviously I can't try it... Why? Using a DOS boot disk once would not be that bad as a workaround, would it? Or is the setting not persistent? Either way I'd prefer to be able to leave the feature on (in usable form), eventually. The bigger question is - why the rapid loads / unloads? In my case the disks are idle hours at a time. No system files on there, just bulk data. Does / could the controller (sata_sil24 in my case) have any influence on this kind of power management? Thanks, C.