Noisy Seagate ST380013AS - Epilogue

[Nomen Nescio]

It's the result of a patent suit Seagate lost, or something like that (I
wasn't paying much attention.) They had to remove the acoustic
management feature from their drives. I think this may have coincided
with the name change from Barracuda V to Barracuda 7200.7.

Google for 'Convolve AND Seagate AND lawsuit'.

Thank you! Guess this explains it. From reading other posts, first they
shipped the drives with AAM disabled. Now it appears that all of their
drives are coming out of the factory with AAM completely removed. HDD
Health confirms this with my drive. Still doesn't explain though why
Seagate Tech support said that their drives aren't noisy. They must
continue to use drives in-house that have the AAM technology. If they (the
people who work at Seagate) had to use their own drives without AAM, they'd
have a better idea of what their customers were hearing.

Does this mean that every drive that has acoustic management is using the
Convolve technology? And what does Seagate mean when they write in their
datasheet for the Barracuda 7200.7 that their drives are "The World's Only
Native Serial ATA Interface?" Do other drive brands convert the data from
parallel to serial at the interface? Or is that just more marketing hype?

IF YOU WANT A QUIET DRIVE, DO NOT BUY SEAGATE!!!!!!!

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

Thank you! Guess this explains it.

You're welcome.

Still doesn't explain though why
Seagate Tech support said that their drives aren't noisy.

Well, I have a Barra IV PATA 80gb and a Barra 7200.7 SATA 160gb. They
certainly are not noisy; I have to put my ear right next to them to hear
them. And I mean right next. I have the Barra IV configured for
maximum performance. Then again, I do actually prefer hearing my drives
seek, since this tells me they are busy without having to look at the
activity LED.

Does this mean that every drive that has acoustic management is using the
Convolve technology?

No idea. Like I said, I haven't been following the story that closely.

And what does Seagate mean when they write in their
datasheet for the Barracuda 7200.7 that their drives are "The World's Only
Native Serial ATA Interface?"

Aha. See below.

Do other drive brands convert the data from
parallel to serial at the interface?
Yes.

Or is that just more marketing hype?

No. Unfortunately, this "world's only native SATA interface" has
predictably resulted in differing interpretations of the SATA protocols,
resulting in an incompatibility between some Silicon Image SATA
controllers and some Seagate drives. This seems to have resulted in
finger-pointing between SI and Seagate, with the user caught in the
middle as usual.

Google "Silicon Image Seagate Mod15Write" for gory details. You will
find most of the interesting technical detail has been posted by Linux
driver authors in the spirit of open source, rather than the closed shop
of Windoze drivers.

IF YOU WANT A QUIET DRIVE, DO NOT BUY SEAGATE!!!!!!!

I have to disagree. You got a dud. It was a Monday morning or Friday
afternoon drive, or some moron somewhere in the distribution chain from
the factory to the shop you bought it from dropped it. It happens.
Back your data up, send it in for replacement and be happy.

 

[Avid Gamer]

My Hitachi SATA is nice and quiet, though it meows like a cat every
now and again

Some people find that enoying, i have my side case fan off, so i just
stroke the harddrive and it stops :0

Nice kitty