Re: Western Digital GreenPower drives and Linux

From: Mike Snitzer
Date: Sat Apr 12 2008 - 11:56:37 EST


On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 11:20 AM, Mike Snitzer <snitzer@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 3:11 AM, Tvrtko A. Ursulin <tvrtko@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On Saturday 12 April 2008 04:19:33 Mike Snitzer wrote:
> > > Any chance you could make your iso available for the freedos w/
> > > wdidle3.exe bootable cd?
> > >
> > > I can't track down wdidle3.exe on wdc.com; they have "Data Lifeguard"
> > > and such but I have no idea if the wdidle3.exe is buried in those
> > > downloads.
> >
> > According to the licence which comes with that thing distribution is not
> > allowed. Also it wouldn't be bad if more people contacted WD about it so that
> > they figure out they at least need to make it available as a download, if not
> > something better.
>
> Just an FYI, I had a look at my counters for a 1TB GP I've had in
> always-on service (expansion drive for my tivo; which runs Linux) for
> 6 months. I'm not seeing any issues, Load_Cycle_Count is quite low.
>
> Device Model: WDC WD10EACS-32ZJB0
> Firmware Version: 01.01B01
>
> 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 094 094 000 Old_age
> Always - 4763
> 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age
> Always - 7
> 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age
> Always - 9
>
> Given the Tivo is constantly doing IO it must've prevented the disk
> from ever spinning down.

Turns out 'wdidle3 /R' on my drive reported:
"Idle3 Timer is disabled"

I took no explicit action to disable it 6 months ago. It strikes me as
odd that WD would disable the Idle3 timer in firmware given the whole
"GreenPower" campaign but I was pleasantly surprised; others may be
too...
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