I read somewhere off the Web that Ubuntu will shorten the lifespan of your harddrive. I’m inclined to agree as I have noticed that even though my laptop is idle, I heard constant clicking noise coming from my harddrive. Now when I changed to OpenSuse, I was hoping that this won’t occur but it’s still there. So is this true? And is there a fix to this? This is really major. Thanks
lotcire wrote:
>
> I read somewhere off the Web that Ubuntu will shorten the lifespan of
> your harddrive. I’m inclined to agree as I have noticed that even though
> my laptop is idle, I heard constant clicking noise coming from my
> harddrive. Now when I changed to OpenSuse, I was hoping that this won’t
> occur but it’s still there. So is this true? And is there a fix to this?
> This is really major. Thanks
>
>
I would worry you had a hard ware failure approaching and you should backup your data. Do you have a dual boot with Windows? Does it exhibit the same noise? If the the lappy is on a flat surface does it click?
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Suse 11.0 x64, Kde 4.2beta (unstable repo), Opera 9.x weekly
See here:
Hi. Thank you very for all the help. Although the problem still persists as the solutions provided are really too complicated for a newbie like me.
There is an optional update package in OS11 update repository called “storage-fixup”. Description:
"workarounds for high number of hard drive load cycles on some notebooks.
This patch adds the “storage-fixup” package, which was not on the 11.0 media. The storage-fixup package fixes problems caused by wrong BIOS or hard drive firmware default settings on some machines, which lead to very frequent head unload actions and might cause unnecessary wear on the hard drive mechanics.
References:
386555 (bugzilla) : bug number 386555"
Just add the update repository (you probably already did), click Yast > Software > Online Update, and choose the package. It’s as easy as it gets 
I strongly recommend you try it, as the constant head parking may wear out your drive very fast.
If your hard drive is clicking like I think it is, then you need to backup your data and replace the drive. While the directions provided below are good to do to increase the life of your drive, it is probably too late for this one. Just fair warning.
+1 on getting a backup of that data. Time’s a wastin’!