Calling smartctl in a loop to curb Load_Cycle_Count: is it safe for a hard disk drive?

[Mayuresh <mayuresh@acm.org>]

I came across the issue of ever increasing Load_Cycle_Count (once nearly
8s) on a new laptop, with a 500GB Toshiba drive.

I tried setting the apm value to 255 (and also experimented with 254,
253). The Load_Cycle_Count rise rate came slightly down with this, though
it still kept increasing at least by a couple of hundred daily.

As a last resort I wrote the following loop and invoked it from
/etc/rc.local:

  while [ true ]; do date; smartctl -a /dev/sda | grep Load_Cycle_Count; sleep 30; done > /tmp/hdtick

sleep 30 was arrived at with trial error (sleep 60) was found to be
insufficient.

It stopped increasing Load_Cycle_Count, though I am curious whether this
is safe to do. Hope I haven't found just another way of reducing the life
of the drive!

Also, curious why apm setting did not solve the problem in the first
place.

Mayuresh.