Load Cycle Count - Should I be concerned?

[bmancreations]

Hi,

 

I currently have two Western Digital 3TB drives showing SMART warnings. The warning is for the Load Cycle Count. 

 

They say over 300,000 it might be in danger. Both are over that, 331,610 and 302,701. I have my drives set-up with StableBit in a pooled configuration. StableBit being the one showing me the warning.

 

Now the SMART warning says there is no imminent disk failure but I would like to get confirmation on that. Should I be worried about these drives?

The funny thing is, awhile ago, one of these drives was having a SMART issue about bad sector count. That warning is gone randomly.

 

Thanks.

[bmancreations]

hmm thought I'd get a quick answer on this one lol dang

[Deli]

hmm thought I'd get a quick answer on this one lol dang

I was hoping Captain_WD will come to give you a comprehensive answer. I guess it is weekend.

 

I bet you have the Green drive. If you have not used WDIDLE3 1.05 to reduce the head parking. I think the LCC of your drives is a bit in the danger zone. If you have the budget, better replace them with Red drives.

 

I hope WD Captain will give you a better suggestion soon.

[bmancreations]

I know in most cases, its better to replace always. Though I am not in the position currently to do so, financially that is.

So hopefully he does reply, I just want to know if I have time, or if they are going to die tomorrow lol I can't remember if they are green or not...they actually originally came from external enclosures. If it matters I can go open up my case and find out (just annoying lol).

 

Thanks for the reply. 

[Deli]

I know in most cases, its better to replace always. Though I am not in the position currently to do so, financially that is.

So hopefully he does reply, I just want to know if I have time, or if they are going to die tomorrow lol I can't remember if they are green or not...they actually originally came from external enclosures. If it matters I can go open up my case and find out (just annoying lol).

 

Thanks for the reply. 

Certain versions of the Green drives are well known for this problem. Their heads park every 8 seconds, that leads to high LCC value. I believe the newer ones are fixed. I am not aware Black, Red and Blue drives have this issue.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey there bmancreations,

 

Generally drives with energy-saving features such as the WD Green one park their head much more often and spin up and down much more compared to regular drives thus having higher values of the Load/unload Cycle Count in their S.M.A.R.T. statuses. 

If you check WD Green drives' spec sheet you will see that they are rated at 300,000 load/unload cycles which means they are safe up to that point. This does not mean that they will fail immediately but you should make backups of your data (if your drive is WD Green). Here's the spec sheet of WD Green: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=VMpaEs

The software that you are using should give you the drive's model number which can give you the info of what exact drive it is. For example a new WD Green 3TB would have the model number WD30EZRX . 

I'd also download and run WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool to check the drive's health and make sure those results are correct. Run it and see if the drive passes both the quick and the extended tests. Here's a link: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=gYsH57

 

Feel free to ask if you have other questions

 

Captain_WD.