Western Digital Blue HDD - High Load / Unload Cycle Count


Steve C

Steve C

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I have a WD Blue HDD 4GB, WD40EZRZ-00GXCB0 installed in my desktop PC which is mainly used for backups. The drive is working fine in Windows 11 with 3262 power on hours. However, CrystalDiskInfo reports a high Load/Unload Cycle Count (20,007 cycles). This excessive head parking could lead to wear over time.

ChatGPT advises the now unsupported utility WDIDLE3 to adjust or disable the IntelliPark feature, which automatically parks the HDD heads after a short idle period. This utility is hard to use since it requires a special DOS boot drive to run. Why is the WD Blue HDD operating like this which many users report? Should I be concerned and can is there a solution to reduce the number of head parking cycles other than using WDIDLE3?
 

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Do you hear any clicking sound?
 

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Steve C said:
No but I have a good sound insulated PC case.
Click to expand...
Hearing clicking sound is not good for the health of the HDD, so i suggest you open the computer case and make sure there is no clicking sound coming from the HDD.
 

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What happens if the hard disk is set to offline mode (if the disk is rarely used)?
 

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abactuon said:
What happens if the hard disk is set to offline mode (if the disk is rarely used)?
Click to expand...
I can't do that since I use the drive for scheduled Reflect backups
 

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This is certainly not advice, but you can use the task scheduler to specify in the script
Set-Disk ...
 

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Microsoft Windows 11 Home
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
MSI MS-7D98
CPU
Intel Core i5-13490F
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MSI B760 GAMING PLUS WIFI
Memory
2 x 16 Patriot Memory (PDP Systems) PSD516G560081 6400MT (32-37-37-74); 1.35V)
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GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 WINDFORCE OC 12G (GV-N4070WF3OC-12GD)
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Bluetooth Аудио
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INNOCN 15K1F
Screen Resolution
1920 x 1080
Hard Drives
WD_BLACK SN770 250GB
KINGSTON SNV2S1000G (ELFK0S.6)
PSU
Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1000W
Case
CG560 - DeepCool
Cooling
ID-COOLING SE-224-XTS / 2 x 140Mm Fan - rear and top; 3 x 120Mm - front
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Corsair K70 RGB TKL
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Corsair KATAR PRO XT
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have you checked at WD for any firmware updates.
my WD (SSD) needed firmware updates. you can use the WD dashboard to check.

Western Digital Support | Western Digital

Western Digital Support
support-en.wd.com support-en.wd.com

best of luck, Steve ..
 

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EXAMPLE 1
learn.microsoft.com

Set-Disk (Storage)

Use this topic to help manage Windows and Windows Server technologies with Windows PowerShell.
learn.microsoft.com

If that's what you mean. I don't know how this will affect the operation of the device controller.
 

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Microsoft Windows 11 HomeIntel Core i5-13490F2 x 16 Patriot Memory (PDP Systems) PSD516G56...GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 WINDFORCE OC 12G (G...
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Microsoft Windows 11 Home
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PC/Desktop
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MSI MS-7D98
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Intel Core i5-13490F
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MSI B760 GAMING PLUS WIFI
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GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 WINDFORCE OC 12G (GV-N4070WF3OC-12GD)
Sound Card
Bluetooth Аудио
Monitor(s) Displays
INNOCN 15K1F
Screen Resolution
1920 x 1080
Hard Drives
WD_BLACK SN770 250GB
KINGSTON SNV2S1000G (ELFK0S.6)
PSU
Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1000W
Case
CG560 - DeepCool
Cooling
ID-COOLING SE-224-XTS / 2 x 140Mm Fan - rear and top; 3 x 120Mm - front
Keyboard
Corsair K70 RGB TKL
Mouse
Corsair KATAR PRO XT
Internet Speed
100 Mbps
Browser
Firefox
Antivirus
Microsoft Defender Antivirus
Other Info
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/66553205
Update. I ran the WD disk utility program but that did not find any issues or firmware update. I then created a DOS boot drive using Rufus and copied the WD utility wdidle3.exe to the USB drive. This utility is used to set the load / unload timer for WD drives. However, when I executed the command wdidel3.exe /R to check the current settings I got the message ”No drives detected. If hard drives are on the system then perhaps the controller is not supported.” The WD Blue drive is connected via the standard Windows 11 Standard SATA AHCI controller so I don't understand why the WD drive isn't found. I'm stumped now since there appears to be way to reduce the high number of load / unload cycles.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 ProCore i7-13700K64 GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR5Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Super Gaming OC 8G
OS
Windows 11 Pro
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
Self build
CPU
Core i7-13700K
Motherboard
Asus TUF Gaming Plus WiFi Z790
Memory
64 GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR5
Graphics Card(s)
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Super Gaming OC 8G
Sound Card
Realtek S1200A
Monitor(s) Displays
Viewsonic VP2770 & Dell (secondary)
Screen Resolution
2560 x 1440
Hard Drives
Kingston KC3000 2TB NVME SSD & SATA HDDs & SSD
PSU
EVGA SuperNova G2 850W
Case
Nanoxia Deep Silence 1
Cooling
Noctua NH-D14
Keyboard
Microsoft Digital Media Pro
Mouse
Logitech Wireless
Internet Speed
80 Mb / s
Browser
Chrome
Antivirus
Defender, Malwarebytes Free & AdwCleaner
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