I updated the description to reflect current information. ** Description changed:
It is confirmed that some systems are seeing an unusually high number of load/unload cycles on their hard disks, as evidenced by smartctl. It was originally surmised that this was related to laptop-mode being enabled, but this affects systems *regardless* of whether or not laptop- mode has been enabled. In fact, aggressive APM is not a bad idea while a system is not on AC, as that system is much more likely to encounter a physical impact. But unfortunately, the heads never stay parked, due to very frequent disk activity. This problem has been confirmed in Ubuntu as well as in other distributions. Symptoms of this bug are: * frequent HD clicks -- more than one per 3 minutes while idle, louder than the typical access sounds. Often more than twice per minute. * Rapidly Increasing Load_Cycle_Count as displayed in the final number in "sudo smartctl -a /dev/hda | grep Load_Cycle_Count" (where /dev/hda is replaced with your own hard disk device) * Early hard disk failure -- some disks are cut down to less than a year of actual uptime. The problem seems to be caused by: * Hardware defaults to aggressive power management, causing heads to park. * Disk is touched often, causing heads to unpark. * Most laptop drives handle up to 600,000 such cycles. Reasonable Limits / Criteria for a fix: * There should be fewer than ~15 load cycles per hour, except during heavy usage while on battery. * This provides a life expectancy of over four years, which is reasonable for a hard disk. Temporary Workaround: * Search for "hdparm -B 254" below. Some hardware with this issue: WD1200VE -- http://www.wdc.com/en/library/portable/2879-001121.pdf -- This aggressive parking is a feature of this disk, but that feature relies on behaviour that allows for significant amounts of (truly) idle time without the disk being touched. Notice the "Load/unload cycles" of 600,000. Example Load_Cycle_Counts: * Thinkpad Z60m/Hitachi HTS541080G9SA00 with well over 7000 load cycles in only 100 hours. That's >70 per hour. * Gateway MT6451/Western Digital WD1200VE with 164762 load cycles in 3747 hours (156 days) of uptime. That's ~43 per hour -- except that the system was patched during the initial third of its life, which puts it at ~63/hour since Gutsy was installed (and wasn't patched, as I had done with feisty). Please see for yourself how often your drive is load cycling: smartctl -d ata -a /dev/sda (This command is for an SATA drive; you'll need to install the smartmontools package first.) - You can get the average per minute by the following division: + You can get the average per hour by the following division: Load_Cycle_Count / Power_On_Hours See also http://paul.luon.net/journal/hacking/BrokenHDDs.html for a rather dramatic account of the effects the current default values may have. -- High frequency of load/unload cycles on some hard disks may shorten lifetime https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/59695 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is the bug contact for Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
