From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1SSeUX-0003FC-QK for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Fri, 11 May 2012 01:17:58 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 45DFFE0D05; Fri, 11 May 2012 01:17:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: from outbound.icp-qv1-irony-out3.iinet.net.au (outbound.icp-qv1-irony-out3.iinet.net.au [203.59.1.148]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1F6A5E0CFD for ; Fri, 11 May 2012 01:15:49 +0000 (UTC) X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AikFAK1nrE/LO8Ee/2dsb2JhbABEgx6CWK4pgQeCFQEBBSNmCw0LAgImAgIhNhkZh2cDCqhIiTQNiVOBL4h2bQUPCIJbgg6BGASIYotEh0wihSaFA4J2gUo X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.75,568,1330876800"; d="scan'208";a="778667351" Received: from unknown (HELO moriah.localdomain) ([203.59.193.30]) by outbound.icp-qv1-irony-out3.iinet.net.au with ESMTP; 11 May 2012 09:15:46 +0800 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by moriah.localdomain (Postfix) with ESMTP id 32CAA21AB8C for ; Fri, 11 May 2012 09:15:46 +0800 (WST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at lan.localdomain Received: from moriah.localdomain ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (moriah.lan.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id rX3KZYZlrgGY for ; Fri, 11 May 2012 09:15:43 +0800 (WST) Received: from [192.168.48.1] (troll [192.168.48.1]) by moriah.localdomain (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2091A77B4B for ; Fri, 11 May 2012 09:15:43 +0800 (WST) Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Are those "green" drives any good? From: Bill Kenworthy To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: References: <4FAA2F0D.8080900@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 09:15:42 +0800 Message-ID: <1336698942.11023.49.camel@troll> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.32.3 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: 67afac0b-b449-426e-9153-a79d40bba15e X-Archives-Hash: 1edaa2a27de12417265991af002a16aa On Thu, 2012-05-10 at 12:20 -0400, Norman Invasion wrote: > On 9 May 2012 04:47, Dale wrote: > > Hi, > > > > As some know, I'm planning to buy me a LARGE hard drive to put all my > > videos on, eventually. The prices are coming down now. I keep seeing > > these "green" drives that are made by just about every company nowadays. > > When comparing them to a non "green" drive, do they hold up as good? > > Are they as dependable as a plain drive? I guess they are more > > efficient and I get that but do they break quicker, more often or no > > difference? > > > > I have noticed that they tend to spin slower and are cheaper. That much > > I have figured out. Other than that, I can't see any other difference. > > Data speeds seem to be about the same. > > > > They have an ugly tendency to nod off at 6 second intervals. > This runs up "193 Load_Cycle_Count" unacceptably: as many > as a few hundred thousand in a year & a million cycles is > getting close to the lifetime limit on most hard drives. I end > up running some iteration of > # hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda > every boot. > hdparm installs an init script with a /etc/conf.d/hdparm file which allows you to set things up at whatever run level you are using. Also beware things like "laptopmode" which take over rewriting the kernel and harddrive parameters for dynamic power saving (i.e., different between running on battery as to from mains) - really does work but can kill a drive with Load_Cycle_Counts so drive life can be foreshortened if you get too zealous (i.e., very short spindown times and using a journalled file system. BillK