S.M.A.R.T 193 Load_Cycle_Count is this very high?

WD Legacy Products My Book Live
1

Hi,

I did a smart check of the hard drive within the my book live using the http://myboolive UI -> Support menu

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5821

I read elsewhere that the Load_Cycle_Count increasing very quickly, can kill the hard drive.

193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   199   199   000    Old_age   Always       -       3335

Worried, My Book Live user with nearly 1 TB of data on a 2 TB drive.

Thanks,

Kaminari

2

I think that’s because the drive has a Green Power drive, they tend to go crazy on the load/unload cycle count due to head parking.

3

This behavour can be changed.  Search this forum for:  idle3ctl

Some very nice person compiled the source code to a binary and provided me with it.

NAS:~# idle3ctl -h
idle3ctl v0.9 - Read, Set or disable the idle3 timer of Western Digital drives
Copyright (C) 2011 Christophe Bothamy

Usage: idle3ctl [options] device
Options:
 -h : displat help
 -V : show version and exit immediately
 -v : version
 --force : force even if no Western Digital HDD are detected
 -g : get raw idle3 timer value
 -g100 : get idle3 timer value as wdidle3 v1.00 value
 -g103 : get idle3 timer value as wdidle3 v1.03 value
 -d : disable idle3 timer
 -s<value> : set idle3 timer raw value
NAS:~# idle3ctl -g /dev/sda4
Idle3 timer set to 131 (0x83)
NAS:~# idle3ctl -g103 /dev/sda4
Idle3 timer set to 90.0s (0x83)

I’ve not turned off the head load/unload, but have told the drive’s own firmware (to wait for 90 seconds of inactivity before putting the heads back on the ramp.

This idle3ctl program does not exist by default on the MBL. It has to be downloaded onto the MBL, and permissions set appropriatly to allow the program to execute.  The parameter is programmed into the Winchester drive’s own controller and survives power-cycles, reboots and firmware updates.

If you wish to have a go?

This is my session.  First enable and login into MBL’s Linux shell…

Using username "root".
root@nas.local's password:
Linux NAS 2.6.32.11-svn45595 #1 Mon Aug 22 08:43:52 PDT 2011 ppc

The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.

Disclaimer: SSH provides access to the network device and all its
content, only users with advanced computer networking and Linux experience
should enable it. Failure to understand the Linux command line interface
can result in rendering your network device inoperable, as well as allowing
unauthorized users access to your network. If you enable SSH, do not share
the root password with anyone you do not want to have direct access to all
the content on your network device.

NAS:~# curl "http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19636162/WDC_MyBookLive/idle3ctl.gz" > idle3ctl.gz
NAS:~# gzip -d idle3ctl.gz
NAS:~# chmod 755 idle3ctl
NAS:~# ./idle3ctl
idle3ctl v0.9 - Read, Set or disable the idle3 timer of Western Digital drives
Copyright (C) 2011 Christophe Bothamy

Usage: idle3ctl [options] device
Options:
 -h : displat help
 -V : show version and exit immediately
 -v : version
 --force : force even if no Western Digital HDD are detected
 -g : get raw idle3 timer value
 -g100 : get idle3 timer value as wdidle3 v1.00 value
 -g103 : get idle3 timer value as wdidle3 v1.03 value
 -d : disable idle3 timer
 -s<value> : set idle3 timer raw value
NAS:~#

(The DropBox URL is from my own account’s public folder.)

 To set the parameter to as I have it the command is . . .

/root/idle3ctl -s131 /dev/sda4

The MBL needs to be shut down and fully powered down (pull power cord out the back for at least 5 seconds) then powered up so the drive’s firmware uses the new setting.

it just means that the drive’s own firmware will not ramp the drive heads until 90 seconds of idle time.  Enjoy.  :smiley:

File: idle3ctl.gz
CRC-32: 04fbb672
   MD4: 644697eaa88b19756ae999fffdfd85a4
   MD5: 118bf296f7b5a45113d629eaeb677852
 SHA-1: 83778eaee1ee3d569985c7f4d4a990c3b73905dd