Seagate Hard Drive question..

On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:34:40 -0000, lid
(indiekiduk) wrote:

I read the whole thread and I'm suprised no one has answered this
already.

Neither have you. Re-read the OP's opening post. An
excerpt:

"I'm not talking about hard drive
activity, as I haven't even installed
a OS on it yet, but rather just the
noise caused by the rotation of the
platters."


Seagate were getting sued due to a patent infringement in
their Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM) software on the drives.

.... which is an interesting bit of info for anyone who did
not know, but would not account for the constant sound the
OP described. This AAM (as with the other brands' names for
same thing) only reduces seek noise.


And
so all Seagates drives sold now have that feature removed and hence
are now ridiculously loud.

No, they are not ridiculously loud, and some of us disable
that feature anyway because it increases seek times. I mean
on the non-Seagate drives too.

If you want quiet you now need to buy
Western Digital and you can use the Hitachi disk tools CD (Feature
Tool (v2.03)) to set the ratio of acoustics/performance you prefer.

No, any properly working drive should be fine.


So if you are in the market for a 320gb sata avoid the ST3320620AS and
get the WD3200KS.

A WD3200KS would be one resolution, and the odds of
resolution would be the same as randomly grabbing any other
drive since this was not a seek noise issue.



Feature Tool (v2.03)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
# Change the drive Automatic Acoustic Management settings to the:

* Lowest acoustic emanation setting (Quiet Seek Mode), or
* Maximum performance level (Normal Seek Mode).

It was set to normal on the WD3200KS I bought from komplett.co.uk so I
had to use Feature Tool to make it completely silent.

Most people don't need "completely silent" and most drives
aren't much louder with the accoustic management in the
"fastest" (or per-manufacturer name for that mode) versus
slowest AAM mode. It should be obvious why all drives, even
those with accoustic management enabled, do not start out
using "slowest" mode, because the performance is slower,
lower, and in a good system case the noise difference is
only significant if the system and even whole room were
fairly quiet.

That does not discount the usefullness IF there is a very
quiet room and a need to make the drive as near silent as
possible, but again, that is not what the OP was
describing.

kony wrote:
On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:34:40 -0000, lid
(indiekiduk) wrote:

I read the whole thread and I'm suprised no one has answered this
already.

Neither have you. Re-read the OP's opening post. An
excerpt:

"I'm not talking about hard drive
activity, as I haven't even installed
a OS on it yet, but rather just the
noise caused by the rotation of the
platters."

I had a very whiny scsi drive to sort out, it was intolerably noisy.
Moved it onto the base of the machine, away from the front, added
cardboard baffles between drive and intake / outlet, and stuck double
thick cardboard to the base and sides as damping. Machine almost
silent.


NT

kony wrote:
On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:34:40 -0000, lid
(indiekiduk) wrote:

I read the whole thread and I'm suprised no one has answered this
already.

Neither have you. Re-read the OP's opening post. An
excerpt:

"I'm not talking about hard drive
activity, as I haven't even installed
a OS on it yet, but rather just the
noise caused by the rotation of the
platters."

I had a very whiny scsi drive to sort out, it was intolerably noisy.
Moved it onto the base of the machine, away from the front, added
cardboard baffles between drive and intake / outlet, and stuck double
thick cardboard to the base and sides as damping. Machine almost
silent.

NB you need the double thick cardboard, not the more common single
thickness. Used in the largest boxes.


NT

On 18 Sep 2006 16:30:37 -0700, wrote:

kony wrote:
On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:34:40 -0000, lid
(indiekiduk) wrote:

I read the whole thread and I'm suprised no one has answered this
already.

Neither have you. Re-read the OP's opening post. An
excerpt:

"I'm not talking about hard drive
activity, as I haven't even installed
a OS on it yet, but rather just the
noise caused by the rotation of the
platters."

I had a very whiny scsi drive to sort out, it was intolerably noisy.
Moved it onto the base of the machine, away from the front, added
cardboard baffles between drive and intake / outlet, and stuck double
thick cardboard to the base and sides as damping. Machine almost
silent.

NB you need the double thick cardboard, not the more common single
thickness. Used in the largest boxes.


Yes those and other methods of quieting systems,
particularly mechanical parts, can sometimes help a lot, but
in the OP's case it may be more significant that this was
not a normal noise level and could be a sign of a problem-
even if it is merely lower tolerance bearing or platter that
works initially but fails sooner than other drives.

larry moe 'n curly wrote:

I realize that this thread is now quite old, but in fairness to the
dealer, and as a final follow up, i'll comment as follows..


lynx wrote:



I have just purchased a ST3250820AS 250gb
but when I put it in the system, and fired it up,
I noticed how noisy it was. I'm not talking about hard drive
activity, as I haven't even installed a OS on it yet, but rather just
the noise caused by the rotation of the platters. It produced a
humming type noise, and vibration was quite noticeable.


So I'm wondering if this is normal for this drive, or if it's faulty?


I spoke to the dealer yesterday, and his comment was that all SATA
drives are noisy- or noisier than PATA drives at least- and that the
level of noise that I was experiencing was quite normal, and is due
mainly to two factors: poor quality of today's drives that are now made
in China, and the much faster data transfer rate of 3Gb/s. He said he
was nevertheless happy to replace the drive to allay my fears.



Why should SATA drives vibrate more than PATA drives when they're
mechanically identical to each other?


I didn't know this.


What's the name of that dealer?
Because frauds and idiots like that should be exposed.



I don't think there's an integrity issue here. He is really a parts
supplier rather than a dealer, since he doesn't supply or build complete
systems. So that would tend to explain his lack of technical knowledge-
although I think he should know better than he does. He has been around
for quite a while (shonky dealers tend not to last long), and he
replaced the drive without hesitation.


I think that you were simply sold a worse than average sample because
I've bought Seagates since the Barracuda IV series, and none vibrated
much at all. I recently had a chance to compare PATA and SATA Seagate
400GB series 7200.9 and 7200.10 drives being tested together, and they
were all quiet and hardly vibrated, with no noticeable differences
between the PATA and SATA versions or between those made in Thailand
and those from China. I was interested in these because the 400GB PATA
7200.9 I recently bought (made in China) ran a few degrees hotter than
my 120GB and 160GB series 7200.7 drives, but apparently that's normal.

MY only HDs that vibrated noticeably were all PATA: 120GB Western
Digital (Thailand or Malaysia), 250GB Samsung (unknown origin, in a
Buffalo USB drive), and a 200GB Hitachi (Thailand).




The replacement drive is quieter than the first one, but still noisy. I
have since had a chance to compare both Western Digital and Samsung
drives, and they are both quieter than the Seagate. The WD is the
quietest (almost inaudible), but the Samsung is the fastest.

I still think tho that I may be getting these Seagates drives from a
'bad' batch. And a five year warranty is not much help if the drive
fails, and you lose all your data. I'm considering if I'll ask this
'dealer' to swap it for a WD.


--

rgds,

Pete
~~~~~
'Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate'

in my experience WD are crap, 2 failed in 2003, but then that was 3 yrs ago
so i dunno if they have improved since then

"lynx" wrote in message
...
larry moe 'n curly wrote:

I realize that this thread is now quite old, but in fairness to the
dealer, and as a final follow up, i'll comment as follows..


lynx wrote:


I have just purchased a ST3250820AS 250gb
but when I put it in the system, and fired it up,
I noticed how noisy it was. I'm not talking about hard drive
activity, as I haven't even installed a OS on it yet, but rather just
the noise caused by the rotation of the platters. It produced a
humming type noise, and vibration was quite noticeable.

So I'm wondering if this is normal for this drive, or if it's faulty?

I spoke to the dealer yesterday, and his comment was that all SATA
drives are noisy- or noisier than PATA drives at least- and that the
level of noise that I was experiencing was quite normal, and is due
mainly to two factors: poor quality of today's drives that are now made
in China, and the much faster data transfer rate of 3Gb/s. He said he
was nevertheless happy to replace the drive to allay my fears.


Why should SATA drives vibrate more than PATA drives when they're
mechanically identical to each other?


I didn't know this.


What's the name of that dealer?
Because frauds and idiots like that should be exposed.


I don't think there's an integrity issue here. He is really a parts
supplier rather than a dealer, since he doesn't supply or build complete
systems. So that would tend to explain his lack of technical knowledge-
although I think he should know better than he does. He has been around
for quite a while (shonky dealers tend not to last long), and he replaced
the drive without hesitation.


I think that you were simply sold a worse than average sample because
I've bought Seagates since the Barracuda IV series, and none vibrated
much at all. I recently had a chance to compare PATA and SATA Seagate
400GB series 7200.9 and 7200.10 drives being tested together, and they
were all quiet and hardly vibrated, with no noticeable differences
between the PATA and SATA versions or between those made in Thailand
and those from China. I was interested in these because the 400GB PATA
7200.9 I recently bought (made in China) ran a few degrees hotter than
my 120GB and 160GB series 7200.7 drives, but apparently that's normal.

MY only HDs that vibrated noticeably were all PATA: 120GB Western
Digital (Thailand or Malaysia), 250GB Samsung (unknown origin, in a
Buffalo USB drive), and a 200GB Hitachi (Thailand).



The replacement drive is quieter than the first one, but still noisy. I
have since had a chance to compare both Western Digital and Samsung
drives, and they are both quieter than the Seagate. The WD is the quietest
(almost inaudible), but the Samsung is the fastest.

I still think tho that I may be getting these Seagates drives from a 'bad'
batch. And a five year warranty is not much help if the drive fails, and
you lose all your data. I'm considering if I'll ask this 'dealer' to swap
it for a WD.


--

rgds,

Pete
~~~~~
'Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate'

free2002 committed to the eternal aether...:

in my experience WD are crap, 2 failed in 2003, but then that was 3 yrs ago
so i dunno if they have improved since then

All my WD's are going fine, I have never had one fail. I have 1 x 40GB, 3 x
80GB abd 2 x 160 GB. The only drives that have ever let me down are
Maxtor.

free2002 wrote:

in my experience WD are crap, 2 failed in 2003, but then that was 3 yrs ago
so i dunno if they have improved since then

Three years ago?!?!? Hah! No bloody experience, in other words.

In the last twenty-five or so years I have purchased for myself or my
employers or my customers disk drives from every manufacturer that has
ever been in the game.

A _very_ few have failed, most have worked faultlessly until retired.

The only ones that I have seen *reliably* fail were the IBM DeathStars,
and that showed up quickly enough that the few I had purchased were
replaced before they failed.

Yes, there can be and are bad batches of drives, but please, 2 failed
means the entire output is crap? Out of how many?

Out of a couple of thousand drives, I've had about a dozen fail
(including 2 DeathStars), and most of them were at customer sites, where
I didn't have total control of the environment so cannot be sure that
some bunny didn't do something to the box.

The moral of this is, "Buy a disk drive from anyone. If it isn't quite
right, take it back and get it replaced, because a drive from *any*
manufacturer can fail."

Cheers,
Gary B-)

--
__________________________________________________ ____________________________
Armful of chairs: Something some people would not know
whether you were up them with or not
- Barry Humphries