WD Parking/Unparking Issue

[MalayZN]

So I just started doing research on hard drives again and was about to go out and get one soon

I found out something about WD having a head parking/unparking issue and was wondering if there is a good app for windows 7 to check the amount / cycles that it has done. Also i read that i can use wdidle3 to flash the 2 drives i have in my computer WD20EARS and WD15EADS to decrease the cycle time from 8 seconds to 300 Do i have to unplug all my other drives in my computer before doing this? because that would be a pain as i have 9 drives in my desktop right now.

thanks and hope to hear a reply soon.

 

[MalayZN]

A GUI program rather then dos based application would be perfered thanks

 

[sminlal]

The WD "parking issue" is really only a problem if you use the drive as the OS drive because the OS is constantly accessing it. But these aren't a good choice for the OS drive because of their performance (i.e., the lack thereof).

If you use these as data drives you shouldn't have any problems. I've been using one for a couple of years now and it's been running just fine - it's got a power cycle count of 2210 and a load/unload cycle count of 3441.

 

[MalayZN]

that's good to know but how do i check ya they are used for storage but does downloading content onto it directly effect that as well no?

 

[sminlal]

If the OS isn't installed on it, then it's a data drive. Downloading won't hurt, unless you plan to download a new file every 30 seconds day in and day out.

 

[MalayZN]

lol ya....... still haven't really answered the how i check my own cycles yet.......

 

[nukemaster]

HDtune, non pro can check that for you under health. It will show lots of good stuff in there.

Not all drives show it in a readable way, but worth a check

http://www.hdtune.com/download.html

 

[MalayZN]

so i checked and holy ***
195309 and it's just a little under a year.

 

[MalayZN]

power time is 5496 so i don't thin that is a good thing to be that high in cycle count

 

[MalayZN]

and that drive isn't os it's just used for storing and watching videos...

 

[MalayZN]

i used wdidle3 to disable it thanks for all your help

 

[nukemaster]

np, i got a seagate green just because I was worried about the idle(but this is a backup drive and will get less then 100-200 hours before it gets replaced anyway), but reviews for most 2000gig drives seem spotty, so i am keeping a close eye on that thing.

I think they got the start stop(head park or load/unload) cycles increased allot to compensate for this idle parking. Hell drives used to be rated at 50,000 then one day it was 300,000. Now they do not tend to list those specs any more, but I am gonna take a guess its over 1,000,000 now days.

EDIT, i notices you disabled(not set to 300), some users report issues with it and others not. let us know how it goes long term please.

 

[fzabkar]

Drives that park their heads on a landing zone on the platters are typically rated for 50,000 contact start/stop cycles.

Drives that park their heads on a load/unload ramp will be rated for several hundred thousand start/stop or load/unload cycles.

You can either consult the product manual for the drive specs, or you can work it out from the SMART data.

For example, MalayZN's count of 195309 will have resulted in a significant decrease in the normalised value of the Load/Unload Cycle attribute. AIUI, the value starts at 200. If the value is now 135, then this means that the drive loses 1 point for each 3000 load/unload cycles. Since the threshold value of the attribute is 0, then the drive will hit the threshold after 600,000 LUL cycles.

 

[nukemaster]

Drives that park their heads on a landing zone on the platters are typically rated for 50,000 contact start/stop cycles.

Drives that park their heads on a load/unload ramp will be rated for several hundred thousand start/stop or load/unload cycles.

You can either consult the product manual for the drive specs, or you can work it out from the SMART data.

For example, MalayZN's count of 195309 will have resulted in a significant decrease in the normalised value of the Load/Unload Cycle attribute. AIUI, the value starts at 200. If the value is now 135, then this means that the drive loses 1 point for each 3000 load/unload cycles. Since the threshold value of the attribute is 0, then the drive will hit the threshold after 600,000 LUL cycles.

you are pure genius.

 

[Carriage]

I just found out about parking/unparking because I was doing research on hard drives and I was just curious if anyone can point me to some resources to read up more about it? When I google it, I get different answers as to what it actually means so I'm still not sure as to what IS and ISN'T considered a park/unpark.

 

[USAFRet]

I just found out about parking/unparking because I was doing research on hard drives and I was just curious if anyone can point me to some resources to read up more about it? When I google it, I get different answers as to what it actually means so I'm still not sure as to what IS and ISN'T considered a park/unpark.

9 years later....

Please start a new thread for this particular question.
(but mostly, this is NOT something you need to worry about)