Linux – How much “Load_cycle_count” can the hard drive hypotethically sustain

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I'm using S.M.A.R.T. to check my hard drives, I recently purchased a used WD Caviar Blue 2.5" and I've noticed that the Load_Cycle_Count has already exceeded the 300k mark, which is the maximum that the company Western Digital says it can sustain.

So I'm wondering, so far the drive is working fine, except as I'm using Ubuntu it is increasing the Load_Cycle_Count extremely fast because of the log and other stuff. So far I haven't found a solution to the problem, I'm looking forward to flashing the hard drive and changing the load/unload idle time from 5 seconds to 300 seconds, the solution I currently found is to keep seeding my torrents. Is this a good idea?

Anyways, how much can my new laptop's hard drive hypothetically sustain if I keep using it, without turning off the machine too much and seeding torrents?

Best Answer

Most newer hard drives are good for 600,000 load cycles. In practice, you can usually do more, but the risk of hard drive failure is significantly increased. The reason for this is that continued wear to the head parking mechanism could eventually result in damage to and failure of the read/write heads themselves.

Turning off APM will stop the repeated load/unload cycles, at the cost of increased heat and power consumption. The following comes from my answer to the Server Fault question "Is my Hard Drive Failing?":

[...] This is typically caused by the Advanced Power Management (APM) feature, which tries to conserve power by parking the heads (unloading them from the platters) after several seconds of idle. The heads are loaded back onto the platters when needed. On most systems, where hard drives get intermittent, on-and-off activity, this can cause lots of load/unload cycles to occur. To turn APM off, run the following command at a root prompt:

smartctl -s apm,off /dev/sda

This command will need to be run each time the system is power-cycled or put to sleep or the drive is otherwise powered off, as this setting is not retained when the drive is turned off.

In my experience, doing this will dramatically reduce the number of load/unload cycles and consequently the chances you'll experience this sort of failure again in the future. Do note, however, that doing this increases power consumption and drive temperature. If the drive constantly runs at temperatures in excess of 50 °C, the risk of premature failure is increased, so you may want to leave APM on (or turn it on if it is off) during the warmer months.

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