HD Load_Cycle_Count, something to worry about?

Question

I installed a brand new 500 GB 7200 rpm Seagate Momentus 7200.4 ST9500420AS hard drive in my Early 2009 Intel Mac mini to replace the failed 1.5 year old 500 GB 5400 rpm Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02 recently. The new Seagate drive works OK.
Then I happened to see some web pages indicating that some HDs might be "pre-programmed" to fail in about 5 years because they too eagerly park their heads every 20 seconds when idling. My brand-new drive had parked its heads about 30.000 times during its first month of moderate use according to smartctl unix tool or Volitans Software's SMART Utility:
http://mymacfixes.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-do-i-stop-clicking-noise-from-hard.ht ml
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities/smartctl.shtml
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/wiki
http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php
The drive spec's seem to indicate that it should take at least 600.000 such Load/Unload Cycles. But at this pace, the drive will meet that figure in two years.
This web page has a cure for that:
http://mymacfixes.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-do-i-stop-clicking-noise-from-hard.ht ml
Now, I'm not sure if this is something an end user should be worried about. Just parking the head without spinning down and up the disk seems inncocent and might be good for laptops that get tossed around. Hitachi has a page describing the technology:
http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/techdocs/9076679E3EE4003E86256FAB0058 25FB/$file/LoadUnload_white_paper_FINAL.pdf
Anyway, yesterday I installed hdapm and now the Load_Cycle_Count doesn't grow so fast anymore and the Mac mini works as usual.
http://mckinlay.net.nz/hdapm/

Answer 1

Hi, jmsy. Paying attention to your hard drive's load cycle count is something you absolutely, positively don't need to do. It's like counting the number of times the wheels on your car turn. Sure, there's a relationship there between usage and lifespan. But you're going to use the car as much as you have to, and replace its tires and the car itself when necessary, and you'll know when those things are necessary without counting tire revolutions all along the way.
Back up your hard drive, keep the backup(s) up to date, and replace the drive when it fails (or, perhaps more likely, when your storage needs outgrow it). Forget about load cycles.