Some time ago there was a post on Slashdot suggesting that there might be an issue with the way some laptop HD's handle power management. There is a page on Ubuntu wiki explaining this issue. I'm not sure if this is something to be worried about or not. I did however notice my HD making this constant clicking sound when the machine was idle. Something is probably trying to access the drive every few seconds so that whenever it spins down it must spin up almost right away.
There are problems with the suggested fixes. Nevertheless I decided to give them a go as the rate of clicking was at least annoying. I followed the instructions given in the wiki for the "99-fix-park.sh" workaround. I also tried the command measuring the count. After the fix the count does indeed increase less rapidly. Since using the workaround I haven't noticed any more clicking from the drive. But it seems there is increased heat output now.
If I understand correctly lower values of Advanced Power Management level setting (option -B of hdparm) park drive heads more often and produce less heat while higher values cause less frequent drive head parking. The original workaround suggests using 254, which provides least frequent drive parking. I tried several different values but settled to 195, which seems to be about the lowest value for me that doesn't cause constant HD clicking.
I think I may have to keep an eye on this issue and see if there is some compromise or a better fix some place.
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