Re: [OT] How long is an unused HD 'new'?
On Mon, 2014-05-12 at 12:30 -0400, Steve Litt wrote:
> On Mon, 12 May 2014 15:10:56 +0000 (UTC)
> Curt <curty@free.fr> wrote:
>
> > On 2014-05-12, Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf@alice-dsl.net> wrote:
> > > On Mon, 12 May 2014 01:43:16 +0200, Hugo Vanwoerkom
> > > <hvw59601@care2.com> wrote:
> > >> I have a 500GB Western Digital hard drive that I bought in 2012
> > >> but it has never been unpacked and has been sitting on the shelf
> > >> all this time. How long can it be considered 'new'? Is it safe to
> > >> use?
> > >
> > > 2 Years in the original packaging on a shelf, in averaged normal
> > > conditions = as new and reliable, as a brand spanking new HDD
> > > A brand spanking new HDD could fail like an used, very old HDD.
> >
> > Maybe he's got one of the "greens" that gets old fast (once very 8
> > seconds) if steps aren't taken.
>
> I have a WD green disk (3GB, IIRC) in my backup server. Could you please
> elaborate on the steps, and in what ways it gets old quickly?
>
> This is actually pretty important because all my backup data is stored
> there.
I can't turn it off (USB controller + case that can't be opened), so
every 30 minutes when the drive want's to sleep, the drive gets touches
by gvfs and similar software and get a wake up call, so its spinning
down and up every 30 minutes. I installed a dummy package for gvfs, but
sometimes, e.g. after using K3b, something else behaves as gvfs would
do.
Some drives spin down and up every 8 seconds, but assumed you have
"direct" access e.g. by SATA, instead of an USB controller to SATA, you
likely can change the settings.
There is proprietary software to change the settings and Linux software
that can do it. I didn't find it, but it is (at least was) mentioned by
an Arch Wiki.
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