[arch-general] Hard disc clicks

[David C. Rankin]

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