I tried to set the APM mode to disabled via CrystalDiskInfo (or set to FEh, what I assume is disabled APM), and so far I haven’t noticed the same stutters. It seems that my suspicion at the start of the post was confirmed, regarding the head parking. From what I understand, the black series (WD2001FASS) do have the same head parking “problems” as the green series are notorious for, albeit a less agressive implementation. This post on this forum seems to confirm this.
Accourding to the smart values, the disk has 802 days of operation time, and in that time it has performed 167262 Load/Unload Cycle Count (LCC). During normal operation where the stutters do occur, the LCC climbs steadily; I haven’t timed it myself, but the post I’ve linked states that it happens every 12.8 seconds. Like I said, when the APM is disabled, and the LCC doesn’t climb, the stutters cease.
My findings do suggest, thought, that the head parking has been active all the time, and it pleads the question why I haven’t noticed the stuttering before. I can’t really say. The stuttering has been there for a long time, so it’s possible that I just can’t recall back to when it didn’t. Another possibility is that the disk has some kind of defect that has become pronounced as the LCC’s have ticked in; as I understand, LCC causes wear on the drive, and WD has rated their disks for a certain amount of LCC before malfunction may set in. Maybe my drive has been weak in that regard.
As it is I’m tempted to make CrystalDiskInfo auto-start with windows so as to disable APM completely on boot to eliminate the stuttering.
Seeing as I’ve narrowed the stuttering down to being connected to LCC, does it seem plausible that LCC could cause this stuttering at all? Because if it doesn’t, I’ll most likely RMA the drive.
