On 09/01/2010 10:22 PM, Isaac Dupree wrote:
On 09/01/10 00:25, Rafael Beraldo wrote:
The thing is, 128 keeps the hard disc spinning down a lot. In fact, 254 is
quite noiseless, but as from 253 the clicking sound returns. I read this bug
page [3] but found nothing new. It is worth remembering that, sometimes,
when I'm watching a movie or TV show with mplayer, it stops for less than I
second, then I hear the disc spinning faster and the video continues.
Some hard drives, such as yours, unfortunately don't have an intermediate
setting. The hdparm -B values aren't in practice standardized.
So, how did you guys set the power manager with hdparm in your laptops? Does
anybody else have this problem? Since I move my netbook often, should I set
it to 128 even if it spins down more than four times a minute?
Depends whether you want your netbook to break (A) when you drop it or (B) after
e.g. three years (or however long, depending on the frequency, more clicks =
less lifetime). Some disks have sudden acceleration sensors that will also try
to park the disk head when the disk feels itself being thrown across the room,
making break-when-you-drop-it somewhat less likely. Since you have audible
clicks, this might also weigh in favor of avoiding the clicks, if the noise
bothers you or others...
-Isaac
In my experience, hard disc clicks are never good. I've run drives where the
read/write head would click on occasion and continue to work, but you always
know in the back of your mind that there is a issue with the drive controller
sending the read/write head on excursions across the disc to either figure out
where it is or to try and cage itself. Neither should occur normally (OK some
drives do cage the r/w head normally on spindown) I have run drives like that
for 1 year+ before the clicking finally becomes the deathnail of the drive.
Backup early and often...
--
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Telephone: (936) 715-9333
Facsimile: (936) 715-9339
www.rankinlawfirm.com
