Re: Load_Cycle_Count: Is 600000 bad?
>> $ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda | grep Load_Cycle_Count
>> 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age
>> Always - 663424
>>
>> Is this bad? I have not noticed any symptoms that I can say is
>> definitely hard -drive related, but every so often the computer gets
>> very slow and unresponsive. Dell Inspiron E 1505 / 6400 with 80 GB
>> hard drive.
>>
>> Thanks.
> You might be interested to read the applicable Debian bug:
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=448673
Some of that report is the result of a misunderstanding:
my Load_Cycle_Count is now at 718,694. this is very bad because the
average Load_Cycle_count before failure for most hard disks is 600,000.
This is simply not true. Most laptop drives have a specification that
says that it should survive approximately half a million
spin-up/spin-down. But Load_Cycle_Count is not spin-up/spin-down (which
is tracked by Start_Stop_Count instead). Most drives specs don't say
anything about the expected number of "load_cycle" that the drive is
expected to survive. This high number of load_cycle is because the
drive aggressively moves (unloads) the head away from the disk after
a very short time of idleness. It does this not so much to save power
as to avoid crashing the head against the disk in case of a shock.
I.e. this number is high so as to avoid data loss.
Other drives only unload the heads when the disk spins up/down, so on
some drives Start_Stop_Count=Load_Cycle_Count. Yet others don't even
bother to report Load_Cycle_Count.
I wouldn't worry about it,
Stefan
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