AAM in seagate Barracuda 7200.9 & 7200.10, and WD

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:49 am

Hey everybody,
i wanted to know how can i activate the AAM option in a Barracuda 7200.9 - 250GB and in a Barracuda 7200.10 - 320GB.

also, how do i set it on a Western Digital 640GB - WD6400AAKS.

would it be better to take the WD caviar green 750GB - WD7500AADS - instead of the blue? will the green be more reliable over time? as i will use it for DL 24\7 - so it doesn't have to be quick.

Thanks a lot,
Dan.

kal001 · Post by **kal001** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:13 am

It is impossible to use AAM on Seagate drives since 7200.8 due to the patent litigations. Seagate drives no longer support that feature.

Shamgar · Post by **Shamgar** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:43 am

Same as what kal001 said re: Seagate drives.
On WD drives, it is possible. Read my post here for links to programs which can change AAM. Hitachi Feature Tool and HDDScan are the ones you're after. HFT needs to run in DOS while HDDScan runs in Windows. Use the others if you wish for information and benchmarking purposes. UBCD has AAM tools on it as well.

Can't comment much on Green vs Blue drives as I have a Blue but not a Green. There's a lot of discussion here on both drives, particularly the Green which was controversial ever since it was released. Check the last 2 or so pages in the Silent Storage forum: plenty of opinion on both drives. If you want to run 24/7, the power savings and potentially cooler running of the Green make it more suited to that application. I would try and find out if the WD7500AADS is one of the newer high density platter drives i.e. it doesn't have the 3 250GB platters of the WD7500AACS.

Unfortunately, all hard drives will prove to be somewhat unreliable over time. The advice I have received in the past commonly says to invest in at least two separate hard drives plus other removable media (flash drive, CD/DVD etc) for critical data backups.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:07 am

thanks.

regarding AAM - im all the reviews it is written aam\idles\access. how do they know the when it uses aam?

how do i know how many platters are there?
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=608

Shamgar · Post by **Shamgar** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:44 am

Lt_Dan wrote:thanks.

regarding AAM - im all the reviews it is written aam\idles\access. how do they know the when it uses aam?

Most of the drive checking programs I linked to earlier should be able to show them AAM information. WD has their own utility which you can change AAM in DOS also. When AAM is engaged, you will notice the noise will be reduced but at the same time access times will be slower, typically greater than 12ms with AAM on. Note there are also different levels of AAM adjustment, typically 3.

Lt_Dan wrote:how do i know how many platters are there?
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=608

Sorry, I can't help on that one. There's not much information on these newer WD drives with DS endings. I think they are meant to be the higher density ones with 500GB platters. It's hard to tell from WD's factsheet alone, and they tend to not be upfront about all their data. There are members here who know a lot more about hard drives than me, so if you hang around, maybe someone else has some light on the matter? There's a thread here on the WD5000AADS, so maybe you can try drawing someone's attention by adding a new post there.

Have you considered any Samsung drives? The F2 EcoGreen 500GB is a 1 platter drive which was warmly reviewed by SPCR. There are also 1TB and greater models available, but I'm not sure if they all use 500GB platters or not. A few users here have them already. Samsung drives are harder to find in North America and Canada, so you may have some trouble tracking one down.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:04 pm

thanks buddy,
i'm checking the thread you linked.

also, i don't like samsung HDD, had a bad experience (i'm sure they're ok but that's just me).

the thing is, my WD 640GB (that has 2 platters) went kaput, so in the warranty i might be able to change to a WD green 750GB.

edit - the article about the WD green: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article786-page1.html
- was 5400rpm - WD7500AACS
while, the WD caviar green - WD7500AADS - doesn't say its speed.

whiic · Post by **whiic** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:46 pm

CS ending is GP with 16MB cache.
DS ending is GP with 32MB cache.

As first GPs were available only as 16MB, DS is less likely to be old stock drive that has been lying around for ages. But in practice, DS has been around long enough already so pre-DS CS variants are already sold out.

Thus, noisewise they should be indentical and CS (no longer) features an extra platter compared to DS. Well, this extra platter was true for 1TB variant.
1st gen = 4x 250GB
2nd gen = 3x 333GB

For 750GB, it might as well be
1st gen = 3x 250GB or 4x 200GB short-stroked to 750GB
2nd gen = 3x 250GB or 3x 333GB short-stroked to 750GB

WD model number don't really tell much and 5400rpm drives are quiet to begin with so one might not notice if it has an extra platter.

Anyway, if you can get a 750GB to replace 640GB 7200rpm WD, go for it. If you were picking a new one, I'd recommend 1TB capacity point instead but for warranty replacements, be happy with anything slightly bigger than original, especially if it's also quieter in addition to being bigger.