>> $ 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 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-laptop-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
