Following up on what I wrote yesterday concerning suggested damage to hard disks caused by Ubuntu not altering the number of load unload cycles set by the manufacturers, I noted that a number of people have been suggesting that Ubuntu should take control away from BIOS and carry out these modifications by default, as Windows does.

Well being the kind of person I am I thought I’d do a little investigation. Now after disabling the cycles from Ubuntu, I let the system run for fifteen minutes and noted that there was no increase where previously there had been.

Now I rebooted in Windows Vista Home Premium, let the system run for fifteen minutes and rebooted into Ubuntu. After taking measurements again, surprisingly there was a ten cycle increase.

So the only conclusion I can draw here is that Windows Vista does not alter settings provided from BIOS/microcode either.

Now as to whether or not increased time in the landing zone is detremental to hard disk lifespan is still very much open to interpretation, one thing is true though – the argument that Ubuntu is not doing something that Windows is doing is incorrect.

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