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Love my new Seagate Momentus XT !!!
- Thread starter rex3
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Hmm, how often does it spin down?
I stopped having my external drives always mounted as I HATED how often they would spin down and I would have to wait for it to kick in.
And those with the new firmware, what's the hit on battery life/heat?
Does the stock harddrive never spin down, or does it take less time for a 5400rpm drive to get going?
I stopped having my external drives always mounted as I HATED how often they would spin down and I would have to wait for it to kick in.
And those with the new firmware, what's the hit on battery life/heat?
Does the stock harddrive never spin down, or does it take less time for a 5400rpm drive to get going?
This is the Seagate Momentus XT thread, and it gets all Seagate Momentus news...
I didn't answer your problems. I have no idea about your problems as I'm still waiting on a part to ship.
Soon-to-be XT Owner
Just ordered a 500GB XT and a FW800 enclosure (for my outgoing 250GB HDD) from OWC. Should be arriving by this weekend and plan to install first thing Monday. I've outgrown the stock 250GB drive so this will be a nice upgrade, both in terms of space and speed.
Just ordered a 500GB XT and a FW800 enclosure (for my outgoing 250GB HDD) from OWC. Should be arriving by this weekend and plan to install first thing Monday. I've outgrown the stock 250GB drive so this will be a nice upgrade, both in terms of space and speed.
Absolutely. I am currently have only 10GB of free space on my existing drive and I haven't done a clean install of OSX ever (I've had the computer for 1.5 years). So I would imagine I will see some good improvements. I am going to do a clean install of OSX, then migrate my data back from the old drive, and will do boot time tests before and after install of the XT.
I just installed this drive and was about to download and install the firmware update SD23 for it but after reading through seagate's forums i got scared lol. The spin down and stuff people are talking about.. Should I be worried or what should I look out for (I don't want to update firmware)
I finally got mine installed last night and put all my documents on it.
I did HD Tune on Windows 7. It's really neat to see the access time test.
1st test - 17ms
2nd test - 6ms
3rd test - 4ms
4th test - 1ms
It performs just as well as my Hitachi, if not better. I do notice that it's a little louder when installed in the optibay, but not so much that I'm going to complain about it. Just noting it.
No details on the spindown. I haven't had a chance to play with it enough.
I did HD Tune on Windows 7. It's really neat to see the access time test.
1st test - 17ms
2nd test - 6ms
3rd test - 4ms
4th test - 1ms
It performs just as well as my Hitachi, if not better. I do notice that it's a little louder when installed in the optibay, but not so much that I'm going to complain about it. Just noting it.
No details on the spindown. I haven't had a chance to play with it enough.
I updated to SD23 today, but I have a problem. Before and after the update everytime I close safari it beachballs for like 2 seconds. I has done this before the update and after. Does anyone have this issue and/or know how to fix it.
Finally have the drive in and have SD23 installed.
If SD22 doesn't bother you, stick with it.
SD23 keeps the drive running 100% of the time. I'd rather not wear out the drive in the first week. It tries to shut off, but then it spins right back up making a few funny noises. I don't like it.
Before, APM would spin down the drive when the drive would like.
Now, APM acts like it is not even present.
I'll live with it, but I'm really in need of backing it up because I don't trust it.
If SD22 doesn't bother you, stick with it.
SD23 keeps the drive running 100% of the time. I'd rather not wear out the drive in the first week. It tries to shut off, but then it spins right back up making a few funny noises. I don't like it.
Before, APM would spin down the drive when the drive would like.
Now, APM acts like it is not even present.
I'll live with it, but I'm really in need of backing it up because I don't trust it.
If you are, I would not just base it on my post. I've only had it installed for a day now.
It's a fantastic drive with thousands of happy users. Having one myself, I'd highly recommend it. The firmware issue is only an issue on a select few machines.
I'm waiting for UPS to deliver a replacement as we speak. Mine went bad after 2 months. I would also not recommend upgrading to the SD23 firmware. It seems to lower battery life substantially. I never had any issues on SD22 when the drive was good.
Right now I get lots of beachballs and disk utility says S.M.A.R.T is failing.
Right now I get lots of beachballs and disk utility says S.M.A.R.T is failing.
Interesting... it's like the Seagate Momentus XT don't like more newer model Mac computers, but with older ones like from 2007, it works fine from what I read. The OP has a similar MBP to mine (2007 model) and I'm definitely afraid of taking the plunge on this hybrid drive because of that spindown issue.
If anyone else has a MBP 2007 model computer or any Mac product from 2007 and you installed this HD, could you post your view on the drive and how long you've been running it on your computer?
Spin down issue that's mentioned here are only applicable to Seagate drives or any drive will have spin down to conserve battery power?
i have just read way to man things happening with this drive (spindown issues battery consumption noise (that people say they "guess" they can live with), firmware issues, and failures). i decided to let this drive work out its kinks out and went with the hitachi travelstar 7k500 which i have heard nothing but great things about
I think all drives spin down, it's maybe a matter of how fast they spin up, or how the power management handles it?
My old Powerbook 17" had a 7200 drive in it, and I never once got a beachball that was drive related.
My external drives for my iMac are those generic USB2 things, and both of them beachball my computer like mad. It seems if the drive has been idle for a while, it stops, which is fine, but it takes forever to get it going. You hear this whirring of the driving coming up to speed, before anything happens.
I was all gung-ho but then read the spin/beachball thing and I HATED it on my iMac. No way I would go into something like that again.
So I'm waiting to see more specific info on people who own them before I bite.
My old Powerbook 17" had a 7200 drive in it, and I never once got a beachball that was drive related.
My external drives for my iMac are those generic USB2 things, and both of them beachball my computer like mad. It seems if the drive has been idle for a while, it stops, which is fine, but it takes forever to get it going. You hear this whirring of the driving coming up to speed, before anything happens.
I was all gung-ho but then read the spin/beachball thing and I HATED it on my iMac. No way I would go into something like that again.
So I'm waiting to see more specific info on people who own them before I bite.
Maybe so?
All I know is that today, I spent the whole day writing a report at work on my laptop. I have an SSD and the XT. XT is in the optical bay.
I can hear the drive spin down. As soon as it stops, it tinks, then spins back up.
So I think the MBP is trying to spin the drive down, but it won't stay off.
I do have to say that it's a speedy little drive. I can copy about 10GB of data off of it in about 2 minutes which roughly works out to be 85MB/s read. Very respectable for a laptop drive.
And the hybrid part works pretty good as well. I find it takes about 4 times of reading or writing for it to make it really fast.
It seems a little loud to me, but I think that's because it's in the optical drive area which is right under the keyboard. The normal hard drive enclosure has a little extra aluminum and vibration dampeners that make it quieter.
So far it's been a good drive, but definitely not living up to the reputation that it has been getting.
I think SD23 ruined its chances for now.