Is it just me or are we seeing a lot post on how ubuntu mess up harddrives over time?

[zach12]

well

[-grubby]

hasn't broken my hard drive

[frodon]

It is just you IMO ;)

[Gremlinzzz]

Alot of people try linux for the first time on old computers that have old harddrives. Iv been using linux for about 5 years and never lost a drive. I did have harddrives burn out using windows but i don't think it was the system.

[Ripfox]

Fud

[tribaal]

Well I lost a couple of hard drives lately, but I blame the hard drives age and/or bad luck: they were getting pretty old, and lived on my 24/7 home server (lots of disk i/o ;)).

- trib'

[original_jamingrit]

Here's some relevant literature. I'm not sure whether it's true or FUD, but the authour provides a fix for it if you think you're affected.

http://www.linux-hero.com/rant/explanation-ubuntu-hard-drive-wear-and-tear

The problem this guy talks about is in battery saving mode on laptops, I think.

[tbroderick]

Fud

Not fud. Try confirmed bug report.

[Phil Airtime]

When I first tried Ubuntu, I did so on a fairly old computer that had an old HD in it. A few months into regular use, the HD died. However, I put that down to the fact that it was old anyway and hadn't been used for years, then became heavily used. It's not harmed my new drive at all.

[Ripfox]

"Kills them" "over time" :-k

fud

[nickburns]

I second the motion that people are trying Ubuntu on old hardware. I know that I used ubuntu for over a year before it ever got installed on a new drive.

[RAV TUX]

wellDefinitely, without a doubt or hesitation; "It's Just You!". ;)

[23meg]

From http://www.linux-hero.com/rant/ubuntu-hard-drive-explosions:


UBUNTU DOES NOT OVERWORK YOUR HARD DRIVE UNLESS IT IS IN LAPTOP MODE.

And laptop-mode is disabled by default.

[bluedragon436]

I know people who have been running Ubuntu for some time now and have had no problems with thier Harddrives.....not to say that there isn't an issue with this but maybe it isn't every install that has this issue....

[sayuki288]

hasn't broken mine yet

[some_random_noob]

Sounds like a load of crap in my opinion. So what? --> If my old 40GB hard drive dies, I have everything backed up and they're as cheap as dirt these days. One of my friends who runs Ubuntu has TWO hard drives in his computer anyway. Lol, he could have two different installations if he wanted. If my hard drive dies, I'll buy a new one for $30nzd.

If Linux was somehow risking the users data, then how come it's so popular on webservers etc? I wouldn't say this is purely FUD, but it is FUD to some degree. Hopefully this "issue" won't get taken out of context ;)

[sayuki288]

yeah i think it's all FUD

[frup]

I've have lost 2 80GB hard drives while using Ubuntu and I know this is FUD. With me it is that something relating to my IDE's and my motherboard is borked.

Hardware broken in my 4.5 year old machine:
1 CD-RW
1 DVD-ROM
1 Nvidia Geforce 4 ti 128MB
2 80GB Seagate...

the first two got ruined while on windows, the nvidia's fan stopped working and I didn't realise... my fault for buying the cheapest hardware possible back in 2003 from some shonky asian computer shop that shut down 6 months after opening. The whole machine + 17inch CRT cost me $500 btw.

[karellen]

I don't know about others, but it's definitely not me. my hdd is 5 years old, it went through countless partitionings with fat 32/ext2/ext3/reiserfs/ntfs and it's in a good state. so, I suppose one must be really stupid to really break his hdd for good

[EdThaSlayer]

Seems my laptops hard drive has lost quite a bit of life.

[tbroderick]

so, I suppose one must be really stupid to really break his hdd for good

Read the bug report(s). It's about load/unload cycles. Hard drives have around 600,000 cycles, then failure. One user reported over 130,000 load cycles in 2.5 months!!!! That's insane and shouldn't happen.

[frodon]

sources please ?

[BigSilly]

This is definitely fud. I always notice how I don't get the whirring drive noises when I use Linux, compared to the racket I used to get from using XP. I don't know about the technical reasons behind that, but it has to be a good thing that it makes far less noise.

[tbroderick]

sources please ?

Bug #59695 (over a year ago) (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi-support/+bug/59695)

Comment # 4 Load Cycle Count 134,608 in 2.5 months (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi-support/+bug/59695)

Summary of Bug #59695 by Daniel Hahler (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DanielHahler/Bug59695)

[frodon]

It's what i guessed, but these issues are laptop only and some of these bugs have been fixed so saying that ubuntu is killing drives only based on this look like unfounded assumption to me.
BTW you missed this one too ;) :
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.17/+bug/67810

[happysmileman]

I had to completely reformat when I forgot to defrag Windows and forced a partitioning the first time I installed, but there was warnings I just ignored because I thought I knew what I was doing :P

[misfitpierce]

Firstly I've had linux for years and no harddrive has died... But oddly like 8 months ago friends windows drive died out. Point is I have never had one die on linux yet. Prob 4-5 years or so there. I would assume that any OS could cause stress on a HD over time not just Ubuntu or linux period. :) It is safe trust me.

[tbroderick]

It's what i guessed, but these issues are laptop only and some of these bugs have been fixed so saying that ubuntu is killing drives only based on this look like unfounded assumption to me.

Laptops are pretty popular these days. And no, it hasn't been fixed. There are workarounds that might work, but the bug is still open. In fact it's still listed as 'Wishlist'.


BTW you missed this one too ;) :
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.17/+bug/67810

That's cause it's not the same bug.

[frodon]

That's cause it's not the same bug.What bug ? i'm not sure we are talking of the same thing, i'm talking about hard drive managements related bugs in general not yours in particular.

About the bug report you linked i think you should take more in consideration the word "potential", that's mean that even if the risk is recognized it has not be proven to destroy drives, there's a difference between potential risk and real risk.

Again i'm just telling you that saying "ubuntu destroy hardrives" based on this is unfounded assumption, but i'm not saying ubuntu don't have any bugs.

[tbroderick]

What bug ? i'm not sure we are talking of the same thing, i'm talking about hard drive managements related bugs in general not yours in particular.

Cleary we are not cause the bug report you posted has nothing to do with the subject. Other then it's about hard drives.


About the bug report you linked i think you should take more in consideration the word "potential", that's mean that even if the risk is recognized it has not be proven to destroy drives, there's a difference between potential risk and real risk.

Seriously, it's part of the hard drive specs. Hitachi specifies 600,000 load/unload cycles (also called start/stop cycles). Maybe your hard drive will last beyond 600,000 cycles, but maybe not. The safe assumption is that after 600,000 cycles, you should replace the drive.


Again i'm justa ye telling you that saying "ubuntu destroy hardrives" based on this is unfounded assumption, but i'm not saying ubuntu don't have any bugs.

And you are wrong. The load/unload cycles being reported by people is not normal. 134,000 cycles in 2.5 months means your hard drive will be dead in less then a year.

[frodon]

Ok so lets agree to disagree on this as i guess whatever i will say you won't even try to understand.

Have a nice day.

[tbroderick]

Ok so lets agree to disagree on this as i guess whatever i will say you won't even try to understand.

Have a nice day.

Whatever. Ask ubuntu_demon then or read his blog:

http://ubuntudemon.wordpress.com/2007/10/26/laptop-hardrive-killer-bug/

He blames the bug in question for killing his hard drive. 241,493 cycles in 1 year.

Why hasn't this bug been marked as 'Critical'?

[frodon]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3667495&postcount=13, it is explicitly written in your link that U-D was using laptop-mode.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3667508&postcount=2

Please move on now, you shared your opinion, i shared mine so all is fine.

[bruce89]

Why hasn't this bug been marked as 'Critical'?

Because there are 160+ comments on it with no more information than "me to, I don't like you, fix it now or I'm leaving".

[Ripfox]

Yea, well I have (no bull) been running Ubuntu on my laptops for OVER a year and recently ran diagnostics on them via the bios and they were FINE. So, I guess it is, after all, FUD. :lolflag:

[maniacmusician]

Yea, well I have (no bull) been running Ubuntu on my laptops for OVER a year and recently ran diagnostics on them via the bios and they were FINE. So, I guess it is, after all, FUD. :lolflag:
Have you been reading the thread at all? It only affects your laptop if you've been using it in laptop-mode. My guess is that you haven't, so your computer is fine. It's not FUD at all. It would be if you were to say that this affects all installations of Ubuntu and if you install Ubuntu on your computer, it will kill your hard drive.

[nocturn]

Not fud. Try confirmed bug report.

Yes, but not caused by Ubuntu, caused by bad defaults in the system BIOS. Ubuntu is in a position to fix this though.

[argie]

My laptop hard drive's fine so far. Since April that is.

[PetePete]

for anyone else who is worried after reading this thread you can check to see if your laptop is set to use "laptop mode" by running following command




cat /etc/default/acpi-support | grep LAPTOP


if it is set to FALSE then everything is fine.

[Ripfox]

Have you been reading the thread at all? It only affects your laptop if you've been using it in laptop-mode. My guess is that you haven't, so your computer is fine. It's not FUD at all. It would be if you were to say that this affects all installations of Ubuntu and if you install Ubuntu on your computer, it will kill your hard drive.

Yes I always read the thread before i comment, thanks.

If you do not know how to turn off laptop mode, and you use Ubuntu, then you haven't been reading up on Ubuntu on laptops much, have you? My point is that each individual who runs a Linux distro (of all things) should do their research on such matters. It is not the fault of Ubuntu, and as stated before, it is set to off by default anyway. So, it kinda is fud. ;)

[klange]

:O
Over 200,000 load/unload cycles and I've only had this thing for 6 months.
I put all the safety measures in place. I don't even need power management in the first place, I rarely use my laptop off of AC.

[Syke]

for anyone else who is worried after reading this thread you can check to see if your laptop is set to use "laptop mode" by running following command




cat /etc/default/acpi-support | grep LAPTOP


if it is set to FALSE then everything is fine.

Actually, even when it is set to FALSE, there are cases of frequent load cycles.

The issue isn't the unloading, it is that Ubuntu immediately reloads the drive. So many users will hear the hard drive heads click off and on every 10 seconds or so. This cannot be good for the drive.

[vivedekananda]

Hmm, I left my laptop idle for 10 minutes, and checked the cycle count.
I had 5 more cycle without any activity from my side, less than under linux but
a bit too much for my taste (I have fixed it with windows version of "hdparm -B 254" subsequently).
My conclusion after much browsing and my own experience is that this is really just a hardware/bios/firmware problem.
I'm going to contact my vendor (Dell) about this and demand a solution.