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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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