Gutsy kills your laptop drive

[Cefiar]

On Wednesday 07 November 2007 14:47:34 Mark M Lambert wrote:
> I apologise if this is old news. An alarming article here [1] and
> here [2] referring to this bug [3].
> Apparently there is a problem on laptops running Gutsy on
> batteries that causes the hard disk to go through a load cycle
> every minute and this dramatically decreases the lifespan of the
> disk.

Err.. it's not only Gutsy. I checked my laptop (which is still running 
Feisty), and I noticed this too.

It should be pointed out that it's seems it's a combination of the default 
settings on the drives/bios AND the failure of the setting that disables 
drive unload that causes this (this might be a failure anywhere in the chain 
from hdparm to hard drive), and NOT Ubuntu as such. It's just that Ubuntu 
doesn't change things from their hardwired default unless you fiddle with 
Ubuntu's defaults. I'm also guessing Ubuntu isn't the only one (as really, 
this is an IDE powersaving issue, the initial setup of which is attempted by 
the kernel), and therefore it should affect a LOT of distributions.

BTW: I almost NEVER run my laptop without power - It's mainly being used at 
work or at home where I have access to power. However, even without using it 
on battery, the Load_Cycle_Count is (currently) up to 1041378. A lot more 
than the 300,000 specified for the drive (a Hitachi Travelstar no less). 
Nothing so far has happened (*knocks on wood*). Fortunately for me I keep 
backups AND I'm looking for a new laptop. :D

-- 
 Stuart Young - aka Cefiar - cef at optus.net