# Warning: Older WD Blue HDDs have IDLE3 at 12.8 sec! >:( - WD10EZEX



## RoutedScripter (Aug 29, 2015)

Hello

Anyone that has an older model Western Digital 1TB Blue EZEX for many years should look at their Load Cycle Counts, however it's not (even close) that terrible as it was with the Green scandal a few years ago, still the difference bettween others is staggering, I have used this one since summer 2014 and it has over 20 thousand LLCs, many many times over the counts of much older and much more busy/active HDDs.

*Here's the accused EZEX-75M2NA0:*





(I guess 20 thousand isn't that much but i panicked when I saw that compared to the rest)
PS: The whole eco-friendly thing makes me a headache anyway, since, global warming is a hoax, now we have to suffer in every aspect of our lives, in US coal power plants are being closed down while China is allowed to open new ones all the time. I bought this "_extra headache and low reliability with lesser power bill based on quack science_" model just because it's for archival-only and because of price/space ratio, everything else is up to the max, all mobo power saving features disabled cause I learned they usually cause instability, might not be as harsh as in older days but still, I'm not taking any chances. And if we're here, also this.

*
Here's the newer 2015 EZEX-00BN5A0: *





*
Here's a older black 1TB FAEX:*






*Here's an old 2008-ish 500GB AAKS model:*






I came to this "discovery" (im sure NAS people probably know it and oh well) because I wanted to use the WDIDLE3 timer correction utility for my data-archive drive which is WD20EZRX which is the newest Green model and I haven't found much about it on the web if it's possible, one thread does say it's not recommended to disable it so I obviously went with the safe route and set it to /S300 which is for 300 seconds and it worked, however I can't guarantee you that for all other revisions of this newer greens other than the extact model in the screenshots.























What's more, the newer WD10EZEX have this fixed, it's disabled on WD10EZEX-00BN5A0. I didn't test for FZEX black and AAKS blue but i'm sure it's also disabled from the LCC counts.

Still, this newer Greens still have 8 seconds, so they probably fixed the problem in another place, but I'm definitely not going to just rely on that. Maybe it was an OS fix, I wasn't around the topic when that was going on so I'm only like finding about the background now.

I also made this thread for others who might not know they can use WDIDLE3 utility to modify the timer on other HDDs not just the ones specified by WD and Greens. (except REDs where a different update utility is required) Didn't found a lot of talk on the web if it's possible or not.

Preferrably to fill the spare CD you can use http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ Ultimate Boot CD and navigate to HDD > Device Info And Management > WDIDLE3 Utility 1.05

You just wait without pressing any keys until the version info about WDIDLE3 appears
Then you just type> wdidle3 /r  to check  --- or> wdidle3 /s300 to set the timer to 5 min

When booting, only have the HDD you wish to check/modify connected to the mobo!

This is the example of my successful set to 300 seconds on the Green AND on the EZEX Blue so this is a really happy ending.






I still don't want to try disabling it completely, as reported here better not use the disable option.

And the reason I'm using blue's is because blacks got bad reviews this time around, the weight is exactly the same, some blacks performed worse, +3 years of warranty for like 40% more price, no thanks, what were they thinking.


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## RCoon (Aug 29, 2015)

RuskiSnajper said:


> , since, global warming is a hoax,



Sorry you lost me there at "hacked CRU emails"

I recommend you talk to somebody who knows all about these things. @SuperSoph_WD


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## timta2 (Aug 30, 2015)

RuskiSnajper said:


> PS: The whole eco-friendly thing makes me a headache anyway, since, global warming is a hoax, now we have to suffer in every aspect of our lives, in US coal power plants are being closed down while China is allowed to open new ones all the time. I bought this "_extra headache and low reliability with lesser power bill based on quack science_" model just because it's for archival-only and because of price/space ratio, everything else is up to the max, all mobo power saving features disabled cause I learned they usually cause instability, might not be as harsh as in older days but still, I'm not taking any chances. And if we're here, also this.



So you're saying that you know better, and have the data proof, that the overwhelming (not bribed or paid by/for the oil/energy industry) majority of scientists are wrong? Let's see it. It's probably time to turn off the Faux News and Rush Limbaugh, because the ignorance is shining through. 

By the way, that drive has been running for over 9000 hours! lol


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## Jetster (Aug 30, 2015)

Post a Cyrystal Disk info so we can see the hours and firmware

Any symptoms of any problem?


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## RoutedScripter (Aug 30, 2015)

Jetster said:


> Post a Cyrystal Disk info so we can see the hours and firmware
> 
> Any symptoms of any problem?




Arent they displayed at 09 ? And in the lower left corner ? Both programs are weird, CDI doesn't display data column and HDTune doesn't display all the items.




RCoon said:


> Sorry you lost me there at "hacked CRU emails"



Well, since you're asking, but if you have more to say then rather use PM, it wasn't just emails it was also source code behind the temperature graph data ...

They also talk in the emails about "hiding the decline", in the code one of the smoking guns is this:

From file: *briffa_sep98_e.pro*  (_september 1998_)


```
;
; PLOTS 'ALL' REGION MXD timeseries from age banded and from hugershoff
; standardised datasets.
; Reads Harry's regional timeseries and outputs the 1600-1992 portion
; with missing values set appropriately.  Uses mxd, and just the
; "all band" timeseries
;****** APPLIES A VERY ARTIFICIAL CORRECTION FOR DECLINE*********
;
yrloc=[1400,findgen(19)*5.+1904]
valadj=[0.,0.,0.,0.,0.,-0.1,-0.25,-0.3,0.,-0.1,0.3,0.8,1.2,1.7,2.5,2.6,2.6,$
  2.6,2.6,2.6]*0.75         ; fudge factor
if n_elements(yrloc) ne n_elements(valadj) then message,'Oooops!'
;
```

Fudge ... is an old term also for making something up, fudge factor = add arbitrary/random/opposite data by this amount.
Wikipedia disinfo agents keep the page clean off any mentions of this https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fudge_factor&action=history

The File: http://di2.nu/foia/harris-tree/briffa_sep98_e.pro (text)
http://winteryknight.com/2009/12/05...ru-e-mails-really-prove-about-global-warming/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/25/climategate-hide-the-decline-codified/

**Keep on topic** -staff


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## Frick (Aug 30, 2015)

I have two WD Blues, I shall look at them when I get home but I don't think those numbers are that high.

Off topic: arstechnica.com/science/2014/05/why-some-tree-ring-records-havent-tracked-recent-warming/


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## Jetster (Aug 30, 2015)

RuskiSnajper said:


> Arent they displayed at 09 ? And in the lower left corner ?



No, CrystalDisk info please


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## Cartel (Aug 30, 2015)

Here's mine for a reference only.


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## Mussels (Aug 30, 2015)

keep this on topic about the WD idle timer issue.


i had some greens kill themselves over this, so i've avoided WD drives since then.


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## RoutedScripter (Aug 30, 2015)

Frick said:


> I have two WD Blues, I shall look at them when I get home but I don't think those numbers are that high.
> 
> Off topic: arstechnica.com/science/2014/05/why-some-tree-ring-records-havent-tracked-recent-warming/



Oh probably not as critical, but don't rely on my stats, I probably wasn't as active with the HDD over the course of a year so if you have some small business application when you work let's say photoshop, you keep downloading, saving project files, materials, copies, temp files, photoshop swap, etc etc all in that drive it could get decent LCC let's say over 100.000 ... oh and ofcourse, a lot of those "power on hours" is the PC just sitting turned on during the night when I'm in the middle of some work and have tons of stuff open I don't want to reset while I sleep, and I use it for alarm clock in the morning so yeah, don't take these stats as heavy usage at all over 1 year.


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## P4-630 (Aug 30, 2015)

I never had/bought WD HDD's , always seagate/toshiba/samsung


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## Aquinus (Aug 30, 2015)

Mussels said:


> i had some *greens* kill themselves over this, so i've avoided WD drives since then.


I feel that my WD Blacks work rather well and perform admirably. Avoiding an entire brand over one type of drive is like saying you should avoid nVidia because of the 3.5GB thing with the 970. It's not an accurate representation of all of WD's products IMHO. Buy the right tool for the right job would be my argument.


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## Mussels (Aug 30, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> I feel that my WD Blacks work rather well and perform admirably. Avoiding an entire brand over one type of drive is like saying you should avoid nVidia because of the 3.5GB thing with the 970. It's not an accurate representation of all of WD's products IMHO. Buy the right tool for the right job would be my argument.



i had 3 640GB blacks die of their own free will within an hour of being powered on, the greens were just the icing on my personal WD failcake.


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## Aquinus (Aug 30, 2015)

Mussels said:


> i had 3 640GB blacks die of their own free will within an hour of being powered on, the greens were just the icing on my personal WD failcake.


I've had two 1TB blacks fail as well. DOAs happen but, I've never had a replacement fail. Maybe your luck has just been bad. Companies don't stay alive by producing more bad HDDs than they do good ones.

Also with respect to failing after 1 hour, it's called the bell or bathtub curve. Hardware is most likely to fail right off the bat as if there is something wrong with it, it will become an issue very quickly.


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## Mussels (Aug 30, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> I've had two 1TB blacks fail as well. DOAs happen but, I've never had a replacement fail. Maybe your luck has just been bad. Companies don't stay alive by producing more bad HDDs than they do good ones.



agreed, all 5 of the drives came from the one store so maybe they bashed them around a lot too. that said, the greens died due to this power saving 'flaw' which makes them relevant to this thread.


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## Aquinus (Aug 30, 2015)

Mussels said:


> the greens died due to this power saving 'flaw' which makes them relevant to this thread.


Interesting. I have a green with no issues and it's not like it's a new drive either.

```
$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdc
smartctl 5.41 2011-06-09 r3365 [x86_64-linux-3.2.0-4-amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Green
Device Model:     WDC WD10EACS-00D6B0
Serial Number:    WD-WCAU40518934
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 2019394a3
Firmware Version: 01.01A01
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Sun Aug 30 06:52:25 2015 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x84) Offline data collection activity
                                        was suspended by an interrupting command from host.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                (23400) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        ( 255) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x303f) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   147   131   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       7608
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       1556
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   200   200   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   039   039   000    Old_age   Always       -       44785
10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       1419
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       244
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       1554
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   111   103   000    Old_age   Always       -       39
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   199   199   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   051    Old_age   Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     32405         -
# 2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     30428         -
# 3  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     29451         -
# 4  Extended offline    Aborted by host               90%     29447         -
# 5  Extended offline    Aborted by host               90%     29447         -
# 6  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     20410         -
# 7  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     20099         -
# 8  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     19637         -
# 9  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     13873         -
#10  Short offline       Interrupted (host reset)      80%     11843         -
#11  Short offline       Completed without error       00%      2052         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
```

Either way, it's not like it's an unknown fact that greens tend to be aggressive on the power saving. That's the nature of the drive and recently we've been seeing greens and blues being the same drive. Maybe the machines mine has been in just has accessed it often enough to keep it from spinning down too often.


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## Mussels (Aug 30, 2015)

its all in how they're used, bearing in mind none of this information is publicly available when you purchase a drive.

using it for linux/NAS like i did = dead green, or one with insane LLC counts.


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## Aquinus (Aug 30, 2015)

Mussels said:


> its all in how they're used, bearing in mind none of this information is publicly available when you purchase a drive.


You mean the "economy" label of greens isn't enough? That's like buying a Civic and expecting a sports car.  It says right on the box "power saving, green energy, cool, quiet". It says nothing about performance which is what is being asked in of in this thread by not spinning down.


Mussels said:


> using it for linux/NAS like i did = dead green


That's what it's doing right now and I pulled smartctl from it. Once again, I don't know what you did or didn't do with it but, it's still an economy drive. Says so right on the box, or maybe I missed something here?


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## Mussels (Aug 30, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> You mean the "economy" label of greens isn't enough? That's like buying a Civic and expecting a sports car.  It says right on the box "power saving, green energy, cool, quiet". It says nothing about performance which is what is being asked in of in this thread by not spinning down.
> 
> That's what it's doing right now and I pulled smartctl from it. Once again, I don't know what you did or didn't do with it but, it's still an economy drive. Says so right on the box, or maybe I missed something here?



you can buy them OEM without a box, and nowhere does it say 'designed for windows only' 'use as external storage only' or 'powers off constantly'


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## Aquinus (Aug 30, 2015)

Mussels said:


> you can buy them OEM without a box, and nowhere does it say 'designed for windows only' 'use as external storage only' or 'powers off constantly'


You're explaining the "contents hot" warning on coffee cups here in the US of A because some person didn't know that a hot coffee is hot. If you don't know what you're buying, shame on you. It's marketed as a low power drive, how do you expect it to stay "low power"?

We're really digressing here though. My simple point is that it's probably a combination of how the OP is using the drive and the fact that it's an aggressive power-saving HDD, greens have always been that way.


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## RoutedScripter (Aug 30, 2015)

Okay I figured out I had Raw set to HEX, fixed now.








*But they took some stuff away from the newer blue models:
*


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## Frick (Aug 30, 2015)

Most SMART values are uninteresting anyway. Head flying hours is an amusing label though.


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## SuperSoph_WD (Aug 31, 2015)

Hey there, @RuskiSnajper!

I'm sorry to hear about these LCC and L/UC issues that you are encountering with the WD drives. However, pretty much all energy-saving drives have higher load/unload cycle counts as they park the head more often to save energy. It is not an issue of WD Green, just a general occurrence on such drive types. 
You know that some utilities, operating systems and software apps can cause the drives to wake up at a higher rate than normal. This could negatively impact the WD Green by artificially increasing the number of load-unload cycles, but it seems like it can have the same effect on the WD Blues as well. 
Unfortunately, running the modifying utility on HDD models that are not listed as compatible was not a good idea, doing so may damage the hard drives beyond repair and your data may be lost. So it's probably a good idea to perform a backup just in case. 

I still escalated this issue, so I will keep you posted with the response. 

SuperSoph_WD


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## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Aug 31, 2015)

RuskiSnajper said:


> since, global warming is a hoax,


Just going to that site makes me feel like im going back to the 90's/early 2000's and as that site is so promptly labeled, makes me "skeptical".


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## RoutedScripter (Aug 31, 2015)

SuperSoph_WD said:


> Hey there, @RuskiSnajper!
> 
> I'm sorry to hear about these LCC and L/UC issues that you are encountering with the WD drives. However, pretty much all energy-saving drives have higher load/unload cycle counts as they park the head more often to save energy. It is not an issue of WD Green, just a general occurrence on such drive types.
> You know that some utilities, operating systems and software apps can cause the drives to wake up at a higher rate than normal. This could negatively impact the WD Green by artificially increasing the number of load-unload cycles, but it seems like it can have the same effect on the WD Blues as well.
> ...



Well thanks for your concern, I will see how the green performs, i've already filled it with more than 600 GB of large continious archival data (so it's not going to be used for high-activity), and hopefully the old Blue will have it's LCC readings slow down.


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## RoutedScripter (Dec 22, 2016)

Update:
Hmm, all the pics unfortunately gone since I had redid my image accounts ... but I can't edit the OP anymore.

But just to add a year later, bought yesterday, the same model WD-10EZEX with submodel 22MFCA0 and manufacturing date of September 2016 has the timer enabled at 300 seconds or 5 minutes from the factory. I guess still usable - I left it alone and didn't try to disable it to not risk any firmware buggyness.

I guess there is still some benefit to having some degree of auto-parking, if you leave home and it's idle, and something falls on the computer, there may be a chance it may do no permanent damage if the head is parket at the time.


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## Frick (Dec 22, 2016)

Both my WD10EZEXs are fine.


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## Jetster (Dec 22, 2016)

Subbed


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## Mussels (Dec 23, 2016)

old thread, but i still use WDIDLE3 on every green and blue drive i get my hands on.


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## fabbs (Jan 17, 2017)

Do you  know if WDIDLE3 works with the news caviar blue like wd20ezrz (it replaced the green one)?


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