HP Compaq 2710p notebook suffers too many head unloads (fwd)

[David Mason]

Sorry, I sent this from the wrong email address, so it didn't make it to
the list.

I have 2 WD Caviar Green, on which I run RAID1, that I bought to be a
matched pair.  But they have surprisingly different values on a few SMART
parameters.  Turns out they're actually different models (which may not be
a bad thing).

sda doesn't have the problem that Hugh cites, but sdb appears too.... it
looks like it's had over a million load cycles!!

The
https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Known_issues#Drives_which_perform_frequent_head_unloads_under_Linuxpage
suggests that hdparm won't let you do a -B, and sure enough, I get:
          HDIO_DRIVE_CMD failed: Input/output error
          APM_level = not supported

I don't have any windows machines to run the wdidle3.exe tool that the web
page suggests.  Any suggestions?

Thanks  ../Dave

---------- diff between my 2 drives ------------------
: ~ ; sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda >a;sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdb >b
: ~ ; diff a b|less

5,9c5,9
< Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Green
< Device Model:     WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1
< Serial Number:    WD-WCAU4D967763
< LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 2ae3e526b
< Firmware Version: 01.01A01
---
> Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Green (Adv. Format)
> Device Model:     WDC WD10EARS-00Z5B1
> Serial Number:    WD-WMAVU1357829
> LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 001df0c15
> Firmware Version: 80.00A80
30c30
< data collection:              (23400) seconds.
---
> data collection:              (27480) seconds.
51,52c51
< SCT capabilities:            (0x303f) SCT Status supported.
<                                       SCT Error Recovery Control
supported.
---
> SCT capabilities:            (0x3031) SCT Status supported.
60,61c59,60
<   3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   165   160   021    Pre-fail  Always
      -       6741
<   4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
      -       104
---
>   3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   181   179   021    Pre-fail  Always
      -       5916
>   4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
      -       74
64,70c63,69
<   9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   067   067   000    Old_age   Always
      -       24502
<  10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
      -       0
<  11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
      -       0
<  12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
      -       102
< 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always
      -       11
< 193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always
      -       104
< 194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   114   103   000    Old_age   Always
      -       36
---
>   9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   075   075   000    Old_age   Always
      -       18713
>  10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always
      -       0
>  11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always
      -       0
>  12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
      -       72
> 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always
      -       17
> 193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   001   001   000    Old_age   Always
      -       1140809
> 194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   113   103   000    Old_age   Always
      -       37
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