Seagate accustic managment - how to switch it off?

[Tannin]

HTF do I switch off the accoustic management crap on a Barracuda ATA IV?

http://www.redhill.net.au/vsl/st340016.png

or a U Series 6?

http://www.redhill.net.au/vsl/st340810.png

(Or, if this is what they are supposed to perform like, HTF do Seagate figure they can get away with selling this crap?)

Compare with something decent:

http://www.redhill.net.au/vsl/sp4002.png

(Samsung P40.)

VSL files at:

www.redhil.net.au/vsl/st340016.vsl
www.redhil.net.au/vsl/st340810.vsl
www.redhil.net.au/vsl/sp4002.vsl

[Tea]

Never mind all that, HTF do I teach Tannin to proof-read his posts?

[Mercutio]

Am I missing something? I just noticed that there isn't a link to their AAM software on their web site. Is it something you have to get through support?

Reminds me why I haven't bought a Seagate Drive since the Barracuda ATA II.

[Tea]

I just noticed that there isn't a link to their AAM software on their web site.

Exactly.

I ran those VSEEK traces earlier tonight, thought "even a Seagate ought be able to do better than that, it must be the AAM" and .... blank wall. Don't they care about performance?

[Clocker]

Here is how you can do it:

Link to Google News comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storagenews (http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&threadm=CqJZ7.80034%246m1.2235045%40typhoon.austin .rr.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dseagate%2520aam%2520utility%26hl%3Den %26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg)

Clocker

[Tea]

Thanks Clocker.

You know, I think I'm going to revisit the entries in my hardware guide for the Cuda ATA IV and the U Series 6. Right now they cite the faster seek time, but seeing as (a) Seagate ship the drives in crippled form, and (b) whatever accoustic difference it makes can't be worthwhile as they all go into machines with PSU and CPU fans which are louder than the hard drives anyway, and (c) Seagate are going out of their way to make it difficult to switch the dam thing off, I think it's fairer to cite the increased seek time.

For a while there, SR's review of the Spinpoint P40s put me off them a bit. But, you know, as time has gone by, I'm becoming fonder and fonder of the little Samsungs.

Mercutio says I really need to get myself a decent Maxtor supplier. Well, I called Ingram Micro yesterday, and they are more reasonable about pricing, but still a bit steep. I pay, from memory, A$131 for a SpinPoint P40. Hard to see it being worth paying A$150 for a 40GB Maxtor 740.

Trouble is, we are buying so much from our Samsung supplier - Samsung hard drives and DVD drives, Mitsubushi monitors, CD-ROM drives and burners, Epox motherboards, about 50% of our CPUs and RAM and video cards - that it's a bit difficult to expect anyone else to match the price break they give us.

Hmmm...

[Clocker]

Tea/Tannin-

FWIW, my 80GB Cuda ATA4 came with AAM disabled (i.e. NOT crippled). I just verified it.

C

[Tannin]

SR says OS shipments have it disabled, US shipments have it on. Mine came from an authorised Seagate distributor here in Oz in the normal way. What do they do, ship them at random?

[Clocker]

I got mine from Dell peripherals (sold as a Seagate drive with full Warranty, not a Dell drive).

C

[Tannin]

Clocker, I took the liberty of changing your Google News URL into the <URL=http://link.here>click here</url> form so as to unbreak the window width.

Tony

[Tea]

Hmmmm ..... very interesting.Here is the Barracuda ATA IV with AM switched off. (Thanks Clocker, IBM's utility worked a treat.)

http://www.redhill.net.au/vsl/st340016-am-off.png

Vastly improved as compared to the factory-shipped configuration, but still not as good as the Samsung P40. Notice the rapid rise in access times near the left-hand side (i.e., short-seek times) and compare to the Samsung's very even near-straight line.

How about the U Series 6 with AM off?

http://www.redhill.net.au/vsl/st340810-am-off.png

Now this is truly bizare! The two graphs are almost identical! At first I thought something must have gone wrong with the IBM AM switching utility, so I ran it again and confirmed: yes, the AM is really and truly off. And it was most certainly on last night when I ran the first test. Then I ran VSEEK again, and the third run (second run with AM off) was identical.

VSL files at:

www.redhil.net.au/vsl/st340016-am-off.vsl
www.redhil.net.au/vsl/st340810-am-off.vsl

[Tea]

Kristi saw the first set I posted last night, by the way, and said: "I guess this means we are buying Samsungs from now on?" Guess so.

[Mercutio]

Kristi should be here posting that for herself.