[mythtv-users] warning for anyone with western digital green drives

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Thu Jan 5 20:53:28 UTC 2012


On 01/05/2012 03:46 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 01/05/2012 03:37 PM, Kris B. wrote:
>> On Thu, Jan 5, 2012, at 02:57 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>>> Note, also, the best fix for the issue is to fix your system to not
>>> abuse the file system--i.e. configure your system to use it
>>> appropriately.  After all, if you actually let the drive idle, rather
>>> than waking it every 10-30s, it will spend a majority of its time at
>>> idle 3 power usage (0.7W) versus 3.3W at idle and 5.3W for read/write.
>>> (Numbers based of WD20EARS -
>>> http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=120 ).
>>> So, it's quite possible that changing the idle 3 timeout will invalidate
>>> your warranty.
>>>
>>> That said, it /is/ important that anyone with a WD Green configure their
>>> system to use the file system properly.  Again, see
>>> http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5357 for some
>>> suggestions, but there are a lot more out there when you search on "low
>>> power linux" or "laptop mode linux" or similar.  Oh, and note, also,
>>> that having only MythTV recordings on the drive may "solve" the issue
>>> for you, too (assuming MythTV recording file writes are<8s apart, and,
>>> IME, they seem to be).
>> Thanks for posting this, Mike.  My green drive is a mythtv or storage
>> drive, only - and I was concerned... looks like I don't have to worry :)
> Well, you shouldn't have to worry about MythTV--but who knows what your
> distro may be doing.  :)
>
> I'd say it's worth checking your current value, as Ron mentioned (the
> count reported by the tools is correct, it's only the max that's
> incorrect/incorrectly-interpreted) and comparing it to how long you've
> been using the drive to see if you should do more.
>

Should have said that counts on my "mythtv recordings only" drive were 
quite reasonable (even if the 300K were the actual max), but counts on a 
friend's "mythtv recordings and whatever else he might be doing to it 
when I'm not looking" drive were significantly (3x) higher than 
mine--and we got the drives at the same time.

Mike


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