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Hitachi Travelstar 7K500

Looking to upgrade my HDD and looking at this Hitachi Travelstar 7K500. Checking the specs I can't determine whether this has G-Force/Motion Sensor. Better info, anyone? Thanks.

😉 cornelius

MBP 2.4 GHz 6 GB RAM, 200 GB HDD; VMwFusion: XP Pro, Ubuntu, Mac OS X (10.6.2), PismoG4/550, 120GB 5400 HDD (10.4.11); Beige G3 OS 8.6

Posted on Mar 8, 2010 6:59 AM

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Posted on Mar 8, 2010 9:17 AM

I installed this Seagate drive in my MBP months ago and it's been running great. Super quiet, runs cool and I didn't notice any shorter battery life than the stock unit that came with the computer. User uploaded file

User uploaded file

Dave M.
MacOSG Founder/Ambassador  An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG

33 replies

Mar 8, 2010 6:38 PM in response to cornelius

A related question. I know that in the past, when noise abatement settings, rather than shock sensors, were an issue when fitting new drives in PBs and the like, it was possible to actually change the drive's own default firmware settings for such things through Mac open firmware commands. You simply wrote a bit of code that included the relevant SATA command to the drive to implement or turn off such features.

Is it still possible to do this with things like the sudden motion sensor on the drive itself (rather than the SMS on the MBP)? I see that Seagate, for example, provide the relevant code that needs to be sent to the SATA interface to do this on their website. No specific instructions i can see there for actually disabling it with a mac though.

Cheers

Rod

Message was edited by: Rod Hagen

Mar 9, 2010 8:09 AM in response to cornelius

Just finished a long conversation with a rep at Hitachi. Some of the time was spent in understanding each other. The drive I linked above HD 20500 IDK/7K is identical to HITO A72335 except the tech referred to the former as a kit, which he explained was a bare drive. Both drives are identical in specs. Both have a 1 year warranty from date of purchase, although OWC lists the second drive as having a 3 year warranty. Both have the same rating for Maximum Areal Density of 370 (Gbits/sq. inch). In terms of whether it includes SMS or similar technology, he explained that only OEM drives have that technology. It does not come on any after market products. Information was helpful, although I am still not certain of which way to go. The second drive listed above is available from OWC for $114.99; the first drive listed is available from Amazon for $85.45 with free shipping. That is a total difference of more than $30 (including shipping).

😉 cornelius

Mar 9, 2010 5:57 PM in response to LilyLC

Lily:
I've seen some users who note that if it is a feature of the hard disk then SMS on the laptop needs to be turned off.

Apple introduced SMS in the PowerBook line in January 2005 and the iBook line in July that year. Some models of later HDDs have included some variation of anti-shock technology, which often conflicts with Apple's built in technology. In those case users are almost always able to disable SMS on their computers.

😉 cornelius

Mar 9, 2010 6:12 PM in response to cornelius

One of the tricky things with this is working out whether people who run into problems are experiencing them because of an SMS sensor conflict, or because of issues with firmware and SATA speeds etc. Some people who have fitted 'shock protected" drives don't seem to have any trouble with them at all, while others who have turned off the MBPs SMS still seem to and have subsequently identified the issue as firmware related. Then there are those who say that turning of the Apple SMS have fixed all their problems. (There actually seem to be significant differences in the calibration of SMSs in different MBPs to confuse the issue further, too)

The picture is a bit of a mess, unfortunately, and I'm not quite sure in which direction (or more probably "directions") the answers actually lie. Makes it hard work picking a new HD these days if you want to cover all possible bases! Personally, if able to and if it makes any real difference, I'd much prefer to turn off the anti-shock processes in the drive rather than in the MBP.

Cheers

Rod

Hitachi Travelstar 7K500

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