Is this number of load cycle count normal?

[Vince_M]

I moved my PC to quiet enviroment and I noticed something like tik sound. After investigation I discovered that source of that strange sound is my WD Red (storage on personal PC, not NAS), every time one load cycle count goes up in HDtune, that tik sound can be heard. Sound seems normal for HDD, everything with HDD is ok (all test, error scan, read test) but I am worried for my daily number of load cycle count. On average daily scale my HDD does around 40 load cycle count. I mostly access my HDD 2-3 times daily. I thought that daily number of load cycle counts should be very low because I have enabled this in power settings (Windows 10):

SMART:

My neighbour has WD blue 7200rpm, he use it as a storage and after 4150 working hours he has 582 load cycle count. So a much more daily average lower than my WD Red.

If this is a probem, is there a tool for WD Red like it was for WD Green, I think it was called widle?

Maybe this is all normal and I am noticing this only because quiet enviroment?

 

[trond]

The WD Reds are rated for at least 600,000 load cycles, like most modern hard drives.

So even with 100 load cycles a day, it should last for more than 10 years.

 

[Luke M]

Power settings control spin down. But the drive parks the head on its own. Some WD drives park after only 8 seconds of inactivity, others 5 minutes. This isn't all bad since it lowers power consumption and protects the drive from shocks.

 

[Vince_M]

Thanks for answering, feel more comfortably now although I hoped there will be solution for this "sound issue".

On which amount of power hours do you retire your HDD? This one currenty is on 20 000 hours, I was planning to use it until 40 000 hours and after that buy some new HDD for storage.

 

[Luke M]

They are supposed to last 5 years (meaning, the failure rate remains low during that time). Until the last few years, drive capacity was rapidly increasing, so it wasn't really an issue - drives became obsolete before they could reach "old age". Now, it's an interesting question. I don't know.