PC ADVISOR
FOR MOBILE

The magazine

Poll

When did you get your first home computer?:

View poll results

Have your say in the
PC Advisor forums!

Blogs

Blogs by topic:

Ubuntu: laptop killer

November 2, 2007

Ubuntu Linux has been taking a kicking this week in the crazed, hedonistic world of online forums. It appears that using Ubuntu on a laptop could kill its hard drive.

The problem apparently stems from the default values set by hard drive makers. Perhaps unusually in the Linux field, Ubuntu obeyed to the letter the demands of manufacturers. As a consequence, reports suggest that when you switch to battery power on an Ubuntu laptop the hard drive goes though a load cycle every minute.

Laptops are generally built to withstand around 600,000 load cycles; so such a glitch is potentially fatal for your portable's storage.

After the initial shock and awe, the Linux community has rallied to create workarounds.

One works by disabling the default values and can be found here.

See our Laptop Advisor website for expert reviews of today’s best laptops, plus read our essential advice to make sure you choose the right specs.

Posted by: Matt Egan

Submit to: Digg Digg Slashdot delicious Del.icio.us reddit Reddit

What is this?

<<newer entry | older entry>>

Comments

Posted by matt_linux on November 2, 2007 :

What the bullshit!
I use notebooks with the linux- ubuntu from 6.06 to, present distro 7.10, and all the aplications are workin`
This is a probably the best OS in the world.
That`s all.
Gates sucks.

Posted by ulises on November 5, 2007 :

just FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt)

Posted by jason on November 5, 2007 :

I have used ubuntu since 7.04, and i love it, but with 7.10 I have noticed a complete sluggishness in my laptop, I went back to 7.04 until this gets resolved, but i agree with matt_linux, i can't live without my ubuntu anymore

PC Advisor staff
Blogger Daily news, views and thoughts from the PC Advisor staff as they put together the magazine. Collectively the PC Advisor team has over 100 years of computing experience, so as you'll imagine they're never short of an opinion or two.
Email author(s)

Latest entries

Entries by month

Nov09	\|	Oct09	\|	Sep09	\|	Aug09
Jul09	\|	Jun09	\|	May09	\|	Apr09
Mar09	\|	Feb09	\|	Jan09	\|	Dec08
Nov08	\|	Oct08	\|	Sep08	\|	Aug08
Jul08	\|	Jun08	\|	May08	\|	Apr08
Mar08	\|	Feb08	\|	Jan08	\|	Dec07
Nov07	\|	Oct07	\|	Sep07	\|	Aug07
Jul07	\|	Jun07	\|	May07	\|	Apr07
Mar07	\|	Feb07	\|	Jan07	\|	Dec06
Nov06	\|	Oct06	\|	Sep06	\|	Aug06
Jul06	\|	Jun06	\|	May06	\|	Apr06
Mar06	\|	Feb06	\|	Jan06	\|	Dec05
Nov05	\|	Oct05