Test if your laptop HD will die prematurely in Ubuntu

I saw this link on another site and figured I'd pass it along since most of us here have laptops. Basically some hard drives cycle too many times per hour and it could lead to a premature demise.

Check your hard drive and apply the necessary fix

 

Gah, I thought they fixed this a long time ago. Now I gotta check my laptop since its on the list.

Glad I bought the cheaper 80GB hdd when I ordered my laptop but I still wouldn't want to brick it prematurely.

 

tailic do you know if this bug is still present in the current versions of distros e.g. ubuntu 8.04. I suppose the bug doesn't affect SSDs?

 

This is still in 8.04. It won't affect SSDs because they don't park like magnetic drives.

 

I don't know if I should apply the fix for my machine. My hdd is cycling about 50 per hour which is lower then the 150 other people are getting but its still on the high side.

The count on my laptop is 32121.

I hope it'll be fixed soon or they'll be a lot of people with dead laptop drives.

 

how do you find out the cycle number?

 

You follow the directions, install the software, run the command and you wait in 15 minute intervals up to an hour. Then after you hit an hour you compare how many cycles your drive went through to the chart he posted.

 

Mine was running about 3 load cycle per 15 minutes, maybe 12-16 per hour....high normal to normal I guess.

 

You should be fine. The chart shows that it'll last 4.5 years in terms of cycles if you leave it on 24/7. The fix is supposed to drop it to zero.

 

Thats' ok then......realistically

 

I really hope that ubuntu and most other distro's implement this fix into their next os version, it would save many alot of time and trouble.

 

Why does the hard drive cycle?

I've noticed my thinkpad with XP will turn the hard drive off and on every minute.

 

It cycles to save power by parking the hdd heads.

 

Woah. I found out that mine is running at 108 cycles/hour. And I use Ubuntu 8+ hours a day. I'll update on how the fix works. Thanks so much for catching this! This issue is OS based correct? So I don't have to worry about it occurring when using Vista? (I'm dual booting)

 

No it won't be a problem in Vista as it rarely parks the drive unless you set it to in the power management.

 

would this be why my HD clicks alot when on ubuntu?

It clicks every 2mins or so...

 

Unfortunately the fix did not work for me. My hard drive model is WDC WD3200BEVT-222CT (320 GB). Rest of specs in sig. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also, this appears to be a hardware problem, so it may be cross-platform. Some people on that thread were reporting an increase in load cycles after using Vista.

 

Im using a WD25000BEVT.. it only clicks when on Ubuntu, it never clicks on Vista

 

It seems my broken openSUSE 10.3 also have problems with it , but I'm not 100% sure.

 

Here's more information that may help.


link

 

The link doesn't work 'cause you didn't remove the "http://" before pasting the url.
Now it's "http://https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DanielHahler/Bug59695"

 

Thanks for the heads up. Also, (reposting link) worked for me. So its another solution to try. Requires that laptop tools is enabled though, so beware of that.

 

My laptop (dell precision M90) with SLED 10 is not affected. Its been on 24/7 for two years, and not many load/unload cycles. I had to fo to windows and check via HDTune. In linux I got:

Code:

 # smartctl -a /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.33 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

Device: ATA      Hitachi HTS54106 Version: MB3O
Serial number:       xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Device type: disk
Local Time is: Mon May 26 18:10:58 2008 PDT
Device does not support SMART
Request Sense failed, [Input/output error]

Error Counter logging not supported

Error Events logging not supported

[GLTSD (Global Logging Target Save Disable) set. Enable Save with '-S on']
Device does not support Self Test logging

Any idea why SMART is not working in linux ?

 

SMART not only requires software to function, it also needs a SMART HD.

 

Well yeah, but the data is available in windows XP. So the HDD has SMART

 

Because it's an older version (5.33) of smartmontools you are using?
Version 5.36 or 5.37 would be better for you I guess.
I read on this page that from version 5.36, users should have less problems with ATA disks.
Maybe worth trying out?

 

Ah, great thanks. I guess I need to update my distro. I'm using SLED 10, and the available packages seem to be old.

 

anyway to check for the problem in windows?

 

As I understand it, Windows doesn't park the drive all the often so your cycles aren't going to build up as quickly.

 

Sure, there is a Windows 32-bit version available from Smartmontools.
Check the bottom of this page.
Cheers.

 

i ran the smartmontools. what should i be looking for?

 

if anyone could help me figure out if my harddrive is ok, i'd be very thankful.

 

You can also install HDTune, and check "health"; it has the SMART data, check for load/unload cycles.

 

Like already mentioned^, you need to check the load cycle count (193 in Smartmontools).
Write down the current load cycle count and check again in 1 hour.
Then you can calculate how many 'load cycles/hour' you've got.
Current HD's can usually go up to 600000 load cycles, so you have to calculate yourself how many hours a day you will use your laptop and then you can find out how long your HD will last.
Let's say you have 10 load cycles an hour and use the laptop 8 hours a day, then you can calculate; 600000: (10*8)= 7500 days/20,5 years lifetime.
If you have a 100 load cycles an hour and use the laptop 24/7; 600000: (100*24)= 250 days.
Check some other numbers here.

 

Oh, snap! My HD is listed as affected.

I think I just won't sweat it, and I'll buy a new HD if I need to down the road...

 

Yeah, I'm not fond of having only 40GB... I've been thinking of swapping it with my 120GB external though. The problem is that I use over 100GB for back up purposes. Very important.

 

I have a 40 GB for backing up, and as I only have 6 GB of personal stuff, it works fine.

 

Why aren't our laptops running in "laptop" mode by default in Ubuntu/Kubuntu?

 

Does laptop mode conserve the HD?

 

Mine was listed as affected too, but apparently it is not

And guys, for backup purposes, just get an external mini drive (with laptop HDDs). They are quite cheap these days, ~$100 for 250GB.

 

im like srsly i can replace my hd like no sweat an upgrad 2 better gbs an stuf an i hav no truble yet an i no spel...

 

how do i copy the script the the given locations/

 

CLI is the best way, or run nautilus as sudo...

sudo /file/name.txt cp /destination

 

i would run that in terminal correct?

 

to everyone who is hesitant, you should test this procedure out anyways. Normally when it comes to odball issues like this, I ignore it and move on. But I had a feeling that I should just spend an hour of my time to test things.

Oh boy was I right. My HD was cycling at around 100 per hour, now its down to 0. The guides are well thought out and simple to uderstand (you just have to use a little brain power). Im sure this will be fixed through an update or whatnot, but since my computer is powered on 24/7, might as well keep it purring as long as possible.


Fyi - Lenovo t61 (ordered around nov 2007)
100 gb 7200 rpm hitachi drive (Hitachi HTS722010k9sa00)

Pre fix:
62,096 cycles
15 mins later
62,123 cycles = thus averaging about 100 per hour

Post Fix
62,242 cycles
15 mins later
62242 cycles! = 0. also ran multiple tests to verify

 

Mini breakdown of the link. You still have to refer to the link to download the script that applies to you (sda or hda)


1) just determine whether you hd is sda or hda in terminal using line:

sudo fdisk -l


2) one youve noted which your computer uses run terminal and use command:

date; sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda | egrep '(Load_Cycle_Count|Temperature)'


3) look at the top line in the output, then take note of the last number (should be a very large number, mine was 62,096). Write that number or the entire output info out.


4) Wait 15 minutes and put the same command in line 2 into terminal. You should get a similar output as in line 3, but the top line, last number should be different. Usually this number is slightly larger. Sometimes by a few digits or sometimes by like 30+ numbers. Multiply this difference by 4 (15 mins x 4 =1 hour) and you will have computed the total number of cycles per hour.

go by the chart in link to determine estimated lifespan at current rate.


5) if determined to be higher than your comfortable, then download the appropriate script to your desktop (either sda or hda script)


6) then in the properties of the script, change to executable.


7) then open terminal, and one by one, type or paste in each line and press enter.

SDA
sudo cp -f ~/Desktop/99-sda-load-count-fix.sh /etc/acpi/ac.d/
sudo cp -f ~/Desktop/99-sda-load-count-fix.sh /etc/acpi/battery.d/
sudo cp -f ~/Desktop/99-sda-load-count-fix.sh /etc/acpi/start.d
sudo cp -f ~/Desktop/99-sda-load-count-fix.sh /etc/acpi/resume.d

OR

HDA
sudo cp -f ~/Desktop/99-hda-load-count-fix.sh /etc/acpi/ac.d/
sudo cp -f ~/Desktop/99-hda-load-count-fix.sh /etc/acpi/battery.d/
sudo cp -f ~/Desktop/99-hda-load-count-fix.sh /etc/acpi/start.d
sudo cp -f ~/Desktop/99-hda-load-count-fix.sh /etc/acpi/resume.d

note: no output happens after you press enter after each of the 4 lines.


8) restart your computer


9) type in same command line used in step 2 to get initial cycles, wait 15 mins later, type script in again and observe the difference. It should be significantly lower. Mine went down to 0.

 

worked great for me as well, i was averaging around 100 per hour, now it only has gone up 1, because i started up the computer which i believe parks it. so all is well, great fix .

 

did anyone run into any problems when trying to run:

sudo rm -i -v /etc/acpi/*load-count-fix.sh
sudo rm -i -v /etc/acpi/suspend.d/*load-count-fix.sh

the shell is telling me the file doesn't exist. I also looked under the directory and couldn't find it either.

edit: I did the fix under launchpad but it only worked for awhile, now its back to cycling like it was.

 

Hey for anyone wondering what the cycle count for vista looks like (I use vista for about 8 hours a day and ubuntu for 8 hours). Attached is my cycle count after the fix (Ubuntu's cycle count went to 0). I just checked my load count everyday after booting up Ubuntu and before I shut down Ubuntu just to check that Ubuntu wasn't contributing to the load count.

As you can see, the average count is ~100 a day, but disregarding the outlier in the middle, the average count is between 10-15. So the conclusion is (for my machine at least, it may be good to test this yourself) that Vista's load count increase does not have a significant impact on your HDD life.

 

Ok, I'm actually going to try and fix this, once I get my reinstall of Hardy up and running.