Seagate and I are done: 320GB AAK firmware - they won't help me with a HD swap!

UPDATE: Seagate came through and gave me a BETA AMM Firmware for the 320GB Drive, after about two weeks of leaning in on them....Check further down to get the link to it.

(Changing the POST TITLE to help others find the BETA AAM Firmware)

_________________________



I had a Seagate SATAII 320GB drive with an AAD firmware, which is really fast for it's type. I planned on using another, similar drive in a RAID0 or possibly a RAID5 (would have to purchase more drives). I bought an identical drive off Newegg and it came with the dreaded AAK firmware.

At first, I thought, no big deal, but benching it, it was ~20MB SLOWER than my AAD Firmware! That will KILL any dreams of my RAID running at full potential.

I called Seagate and they WILL NOT help me out by swapping to an OLDER AAD drive! The genius on the phone initially thought I wanted to swap to a higher 500GB Drive with the AAM firmware, which fixes these issues, but it's only available for the 500GB model, not the 320GB model (yet)...

All I was asking for was to give me the performance that I paid for, and not a crippled drive. Am I wrong in all this? All I was asking for was a swap to an AAD or similar drive...

So I am stuck with a crippled AAK 320GB Drive that I will have to return to Newegg because it's not as well of a performer as the older drive... It's not broken, it's just not working 100%, which can EASILY be fixed with a firmware update, they already have one for the 500GB model!!! So I'll end up with a restocking fee on top of all this. Not a biggie, just more upset with the cheapie Customer Support Philosophy of Seagate these days.

Anyone have any ideas?
I'm not being a moron am I?
Thoughts? Thanks!
jeeka.

Keep swapping till you get AAD? Or, go to a local PC shop, best buy, etc and look around till you find an AAD.

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully AAM will make its way down to the 320GB's someday. I just got a used 500gb .10 that turned out to be AAK.

Just curious though. I remember a year or so ago, people were complaining about some seagates that were really loud. Were these AAK? 308? My seagate is way way way louder than the two wd 500gb's I have (ks and ys).

At this point in time, why get a .10 over a .11? If raiding a .10 and .11, shouldn't it still perform no worse than having two .10's (assuming the .11 doesn't have any specs lower than the .10?)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ziddey

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully AAM will make its way down to the 320GB's someday. I just got a used 500gb .10 that turned out to be AAK.

Just curious though. I remember a year or so ago, people were complaining about some seagates that were really loud. Were these AAK? 308? My seagate is way way way louder than the two wd 500gb's I have (ks and ys).

At this point in time, why get a .10 over a .11? If raiding a .10 and .11, shouldn't it still perform no worse than having two .10's (assuming the .11 doesn't have any specs lower than the .10?)

---

Ya, that makes sense in theory. I would always like to try and have equal drives. Mainly, for me, it's knowing that one drive is holding the other one back.

This is why I stay away from Seagate these days, why would you even have to get such various results between a product only based when and where it's manufactured. This is something I dislike a lot. Should be the same thing if it carries same product model, 2~3 MB/s or so would be ok I guess but 20MB/s slower isn't acceptable.

How do you determine the firmware you get? I bought a 250GB seagate, their really thin single platter one that is pretty quick. Do any of those have poor firmware?

BTW, can't you flash the firmware on the drive?

Give it some static and then call them and tell them the drive died so they replace it. This is BS!

I have personally never tried it with a Hard drive (never had too) but isn't it possible to reflash the firmware by some means? Or is it locked, on a ROM chip, etc?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SparkyJJO

How do you determine the firmware you get? I bought a 250GB seagate, their really thin single platter one that is pretty quick. Do any of those have poor firmware?

BTW, can't you flash the firmware on the drive?

---

You can go into the Intel Matrix Storage Console and see the firmware when you click on the drive. These drives also have the shipping firmware on the HD's label.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rilla927

Give it some static and then call them and tell them the drive died so they replace it. This is BS!

---

Ha, true huh, but they already have my calls, online chats and online requests logged, as noted by the genius on the phone who helped me. Knowing them (and in that case they would have the right to do so), they would be suspicious of my drive's "sudden death" and would tell me to go take a hike......

It'll also say it during post. Or in programs like hdtach/hdtune.

Hopefully aam firmware will hit the lower drives soon or someone will figure out how to forceflash them.

OK thanks, I'll check my label. Intel matrix storage console won't do me a bit of good since I don't have an intel board :p:

i was in the same boat as you, except i bought a pair of 320gb's for raid and they were slow! i did post something about it a while back

anyway i sold them on for ebay actually breaking even for a change, got 2 x WD 320gb's now and world of difference on performance.

i'd recommend you do what i did

My drive is an AAC firmware drive. Good? Bad?

no prob :) do an hdtach and you'd know if you had problems ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SparkyJJO

My drive is an AAC firmware drive. Good? Bad?

---

AAC supposedly was really good and didn't have these issues of being "capped". I have AAD on my other drive and it wipes the floor with the AAK Drive.

I wonder if the aquisition of Maxtor allowed them to "downsize"/reuse parts to lower costs and start quietly swapping in less effective parts left over from the Maxtor stuff while riding the "quality" reputation of Seagate. If so, I did not buy the drive that was advertised to me.

It's Ok, I just bought another WD3200AAKS drive to pair it with my other WD drive and put THAT setup into a RAID.

Seagate will pay for spitting on my hands after I handed them my money.
jeeka.

its wrong they are getting away with it

i paid full whack for the seagate 320gb's, infact i think they a bit more expensive than the western digitals.

seagate advised me that i couldnt update the firmware on the hdd's because the eeprom chip used is different. i'll avoid seagate for this, but who's to say that other manufacturer's wont do something similar?

UPDATE:
They sent me an e-mail with a link to AAE FIRMWARE!.....I knew they would get it wrong......I HAVE AAK! IT WON'T WORK!

So, I backed up whatever I had on the AAK Drive, knowing it would not work, and tried it, just in case I could be proven wrong (which is often) :)...

AND..... rebooting back into Windows, HD Tune and the Intel Matrix Storage Console still had me at AAK.....

So it turns out that Seagate knows less about their drives than we do...
Here is my attachment that I sent to them...sorry so big on screen.

Why can't they just tailor an AAM Firmware from a 500GB model and release it! They are probably workng on it as we speak...ya right...

Ok after reading this thread I dont understand why you guys have not flashed to aam firmware, a simple google search would have solved you heartache.

I had two 500gb 7200.10s with aak firmware, and a while back contacted seagate support who basically told be to buy new disks becasue my drives couldnt be flashed, well I found a link with a firmware update, and guess what she flashed to the new firmware..

I have saved you the trouble http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread...=213448&page=5 a guy in this forum has uploaded the firmware for us ,burn it to a cd ,boot from cd skip thru the readme and then when in A:\ promt mash in firmware.bat I think it was.

Just make shure you read the readme file before jumping in, and please dont blame any one if you hose your disks, but I did my two and it worked a treat..

Good luck .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by REVHEAD

Ok after reading this thread I dont understand why you guys have not flashed to aam firmware, a simple google search would have solved you heartache.

I had two 500gb 7200.10s with aak firmware, and a while back contacted seagate support who basically told be to buy new disks becasue my drives couldnt be flashed, well I found a link with a firmware update, and guess what she flashed to the new firmware..

I have saved you the trouble http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread...=213448&page=5 a guy in this forum has uploaded the firmware for us ,burn it to a cd ,boot from cd skip thru the readme and then when in A:\ promt mash in firmware.bat I think it was.

Just make shure you read the readme file before jumping in, and please dont blame any one if you hose your disks, but I did my two and it worked a treat..

Good luck .

---

Before you claim to be victorious in a solution, please note that this is for drives ending in 308 ONLY....whether it be 320GB, 500GB, etc.

You have not totally saved us the trouble since this only applies to some people...and even then some of the people in the other forum could not get the AAM Firmware to take on their 320GB Drives ending in 308....:)

I have done HOURS of searching on the net, so please don't tell me that I need to try harder.... I appreciate the efforts to contribute, and yes, you are partly right, but we are not there quite yet.

I have seen this post as well, hopefully this helps us find a solution!:toast:
Thanks again for helping me arrive at a solution, and don't take the above personally.

Fight on!
jeeka.

UPDATE:

Hey ya'll tried the link from REVHEAD's post, seeing as how I have an AAK with a P/N ending in -308...and it did not work.

Hopefully someone might be able to build off of REVHEAD's link.

REVHEAD, thanks for the link!
-jeeka.

I am sorry to hear this, my drives end in -308 and the flash worked. sorry it it didnt flash.

Ah, wait a second, I used flash.bat and not firmware.bat.......was I supposed to use firmware.bat????????

ill recheck for you let me load it back up again

I believe it's just flash.bat...
I saw one your last post (#60) in the other forum and you posted "firware.bat" as opposed to firmware.bat, but in the link, the poster said to use "flash.bat"...

You have the 500GB Drive, no?
I have the 320GB...
arg!
jeeka.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tortel

Back to the store you got it from, tell them it was DOA. If it was newegg, they will be nice and help ya

---

Ya, got it from Newegg, but if I ask for a replacement, it will not guarantee a "good" replacement....

Yeah it was flash.bat

Burn it to iso and boot from the cd, skipp thru all the mumbo jumbo and hit the esc key then you will be brought to the Seagate boot screen a:\>

Then just put in flash.bat when it is finished hit the restart key on your computer dont alt cnt del.

I did check my drives for the -308 till you mentioned it , and yeah both of mine are -308 so I am unshure why they flashed I gained about 15mbs average read flashing, and the Intel Matrix software now picks it up as aam firmware.

I hope you can get it flashed, becasue its been annoying me for about 5 months now knowing I had 2 drives with aak firmware.

Yes I have 500gb drives.

EDIT I just noticed they said in the thread firware only works on 500gb drives ,sorry for the fals lead guys I just noticed it

Thanks REVHEAD,
I will give it another go, I turned off the power on the machine instead of resetting it. Did you disconnect ALL your other drives (if you have any) before you tried?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jeeka

Thanks REVHEAD,
I will give it another go, I hit the turned off the power on the machine instead of resetting it. Did you disconnect ALL your other drives (if you have any) before you tried?

---

yes mate I pulled the power off my other drive, I noticed after re reading there thread that that firmware only supports 500gb drives sorry, I think a good idea would be to keep a close eye on that thread because I am shure a version will come out for 320 drives.

Will do, Thanks REVHEAD!

In your picture you point to where it says 320GB AAK. That's what you yourself labeled your hard drive partition. Looking down, it says 3.AA. That said, it is probably still AAK and hdtune just didn't read all the information for some reason.

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/3489/hdtuneip3.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ziddey

In your picture you point to where it says 320GB AAK. That's what you yourself labeled your hard drive partition. Looking down, it says 3.AA. That said, it is probably still AAK and hdtune just didn't read all the information for some reason.

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/3489/hdtuneip3.jpg

---

Right, I see what you are sayin'. I labeled that because I didn't want to confuse it with my other drive if I had to do work on it. So, yes, that is my label. But I confirmed it as still AAK by using the Intel Matrix Storage Manager, as well as HDTune to test the 70MB/Sec. Cap.

Sorry, should have made that more clear.

Any other thoughts guys???

UPDATE!

Seagate just sent me a BETA 3.AAM Firmware for the 320GB Drive. I will test it out a little later and get back to you guys here. Spread the word to have others keep an eye on this thread.

There might still be hope for us 320GB AAK Firmware owners!!!!

See you in a bit! Hopefully with good news to report. We'll See...
jeeka.

all this commotion over <3mb/s avg speed difference? Are you joking me? Its a bit faster only at the start of the drive when it is using outer tracks. Nothing you would EVER notice without running a SYNTHETIC benchmark.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by One_Hertz

all this commotion over <3mb/s avg speed difference? Are you joking me? Its a bit faster only at the start of the drive when it is using outer tracks. Nothing you would EVER notice without running a SYNTHETIC benchmark.

---

Would you buy a part that you KNEW was slower, even before benching it, based on tests done in the real world (writing files back and forth, etc..)?

What if I sold ya' a "Widget", saying it was this, that and the other? What if you bought it, and then came back a month later and said you wanted the exact same model, which is the exact same price and product code?

What if I sold it to you at the same price, and then you go home to find out it is NOT the same "WIDGET" I had promised you?

Would you be pissed/irked?

What if I sold you tires to your car, just like the previous ones I sold you, at the same price, but they turn out to be re-treads...or made from cheaper materials....What if that cheaper material caused you to lose "data" (in this case, your health, the actual car, etc...) if it caused an accident?


I wanna make sure that if I buy something, all things being equal, that I am getting the same thing, or at least SIMILAR to "it" as before. My money, my choice...... :)

Just goes to show, if you lean on someone who asked for your money in exchange for something, you just might get the support you ask for that comes with the product....

We'll see if this firmware flash works though, hopefully!

Did you run some other benches? Flashing firmware for desktop drives is not common, I am surprised Seagate is even cooperating here

Tons, the standard stuff, all consistently slower and capped at 69.8-70MB/sec.
My thinking is that if Seagate acknowledges this by releasing an AAM update to the 500GB as well as the 320GB drives, the issue is real enough for them to fix it.

Thoughts?

I am surprised they are working with me as well, but tons of people have the same issue, perceived or not, and a fix looks like it is being worked on...

wow! I had bought a 320 SATA2 about half a year ago, and I was amazed at how much faster it was then my only 80GB 7200.1. I just fired up HD Tune now, and realized that it is the AAK firmware!

Could you PM me a link with that Beta AAM? Do you have to wipe the drive before you format?

My drive caps at about 63MB/s until it hits around 70&#37; of the drive, where it drops off as normal

I ran HD tach on my AAC 250GB and I get ~85MB/sec sequential read and 217MB/sec burst, this was with the quick test.

SUCCESS! Well at least in HD Tach...
Here are some screens of the 320GB AAM Firmware Beta...

Summary:
Went from 13.3ms on AAK to 13.1ms on AAM
Min of 40.4MB/Sec on AAK and 40.4MB/Sec on AAM
Max of 70.0MB/Sec on AAK to 81.0MB/Sec on AAM
Avg of 62.7MB/Sec on AAK and 65.6MB/Sec on AAM
Burst went from 138.7MB/Sec on AAK to 137.6MB/ Sec.

The drive is faster now in the first 50&#37; and tails off like it should. Got some wierd leveling between 18% and 30%...
I am not saying it's good or bad, this is just a bench, but I feel a lot better now about this, and am confident enough to put into a RAID0 with my AAD 320GB Drive.

So here's the results!
Thoughts?
jeeka.

3mb/s extra! Now you'll fly into servers!

Hey, thanks for the constructive comments!
If this post was so unimportant to you, why did you respond to it? Just to cut me down? I'm not understanding your arrogance...

Hopefully this post will help somebody who has the same problems I had with this drive. The idea is to trade knowledge and discuss, not to be sarcastic to the point of insulting other posters...... Obviously you know that because you've been around since October 2004....and I am just "a noob" since Sept. 2006....

Don't worry about him. He's Canadian.

Glad to see AAM has hit the other variants. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in a copy if you wouldn't mind posting a copy.

I will post it a little later, gotta step out for a bit.
What would be the best way to attach it? Or should I upload it to a rapidshare type site? What's the rules on that?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jeeka

Hey, thanks for the constructive comments!
If this post was so unimportant to you, why did you respond to it? Just to cut me down? I'm not understanding your arrogance...

Hopefully this post will help somebody who has the same problems I had with this drive. The idea is to trade knowledge and discuss, not to be sarcastic to the point of insulting other posters...... Obviously you know that because you've been around since October 2004....and I am just "a noob" since Sept. 2006....

---

And Im not understanding your need to go ahead and waste your own time and seagates time about your ridiculous "problem". If you were that anal about performance then you went the wrong brand to begin with, like someone else already suggested. You could have just worked the hours you spent "fixing" things at a job and bought yourself something that would have given you a larger improvement than 4% in avg str :rolleyes:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ziddey

Don't worry about him. He's Canadian.

Glad to see AAM has hit the other variants. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in a copy if you wouldn't mind posting a copy.

---

Yep we're all terrible people. Lord help us. As a point, despite my country of origin, that's not really within the context of the forum to say things like that. If you think One Hertz was being a butt saying so in a way that doesn't single him out because he's a dog/bird with brown spots or comes from Canuckistan would be most appreciated.

Thanks.

Alright guys, let's get back on topic ok. Enough with the bashing, mocking and people getting mad at me because I want the best I can get. I didn't know that it would hurt One_Hertz so much. I am so sorry for wasting internet real estate on my 4&#37; problem. I should have run it by One_Hertz to make sure it's ok to post.

Because here at XtremeSystems Forums, I should have known better than to post something about getting the performance I can out of existing parts. I should have known better than to post without letting One_Hertz know so he can tell me about wasting time. :ROTF:

How dare I waste all of your time trying to get 4% out of my Hard Drives.
It's wrong of me to ask for help, I mean, after all, what if I were trying to OC my machine by 4% more, would that have made it better One_Hertz?

Is extracting the most performance, whether it be 1% or 25%, wrong? Why do you care? It's not your time I am "wasting". Tell the rest of us on the board that they are wasting their time by their 1,2,5,10 FSB clock gains when OC'ing. You're insulting everyone on here with that mentality.

Who are you to tell me that it does not meet YOUR STANDARD of "awesome-ness"?

I don't care where you're from, that's not relevant. I don't care if you were my neighbor. Your arrogance is relevant, though. I wasn't the one who said that. You are too up tight. You are the first one on this forum who has not been civil to me....everyone else has been really really cool. You took a shot at me.

Honestly, if you are not interested in my post, don't reply to it! Move on to insult the next guy who asks for help.

That being said, I hope to help you one day if you ever have an issue, or at least contribute in a civil manner that might lead you to a solution, honestly....or do you have ALL the answers and don't need anyone's help?

Cheers.
With that being said, here is the AAM BETA Firmware!
HERE
It worked for me, but backup your data prior to updating. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Thanks for the upload. Interesting! It's the same exact file as the 500gb aam I got from vrzone. People were saying it didn't work for their 320's. Hmm....


:up:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ziddey

Thanks for the upload. Interesting! It's the same exact file as the 500gb aam I got from vrzone. People were saying it didn't work for their 320's. Hmm....


:up:

---

WAIT!!!!

That was the wrong file! DONT USE IT....I fixed the link so now you can click on it....That previous incorrect link was in fact the one from VRZone that RevHead helped me with....

Linked Fixed in my post above, but here it is again: Here

SORRY FOR THE MIX UP!:)

GOOD LUCK!

EDIT/UPDATE: TIP - on my P5K Deluxe, I had to set my Harddrives to IDE in the BIOS. The flash.bat program would not detect the drive in AHCI and obviously RAID, as well. Also, as a precaution, on top of backing up what was already on the drive, I disconnected ALL other drives, even the DVD Drives just to be safe. It detects if you have the right version of the drive installed, even if you have an identical drive hooked up as well (in my case, an AAD Drive). It will only look for AAK Drives ending in -308.

This has a burnable .iso as well as a floppy setup. Obviously keep an Optical drive connected to use the burned .iso file, set it to boot from Optical and you are good to go.

Hope that tip helps somebody if you get stuck!

Well guys? Anyone else try this AAM Firmware? I am interested in your results.
-jeeka.

i posted the link to this thread at fluffles and vr-zone, the two big threads on aak/aam

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jeeka

Alright guys, let's get back on topic ok. Enough with the bashing, mocking and people getting mad at me because I want the best I can get. I didn't know that it would hurt One_Hertz so much. I am so sorry for wasting internet real estate on my 4% problem. I should have run it by One_Hertz to make sure it's ok to post.

Because here at XtremeSystems Forums, I should have known better than to post something about getting the performance I can out of existing parts. I should have known better than to post without letting One_Hertz know so he can tell me about wasting time. :ROTF:

How dare I waste all of your time trying to get 4% out of my Hard Drives.
It's wrong of me to ask for help, I mean, after all, what if I were trying to OC my machine by 4% more, would that have made it better One_Hertz?

Is extracting the most performance, whether it be 1% or 25%, wrong? Why do you care? It's not your time I am "wasting". Tell the rest of us on the board that they are wasting their time by their 1,2,5,10 FSB clock gains when OC'ing. You're insulting everyone on here with that mentality.

Who are you to tell me that it does not meet YOUR STANDARD of "awesome-ness"?

I don't care where you're from, that's not relevant. I don't care if you were my neighbor. Your arrogance is relevant, though. I wasn't the one who said that. You are too up tight. You are the first one on this forum who has not been civil to me....everyone else has been really really cool. You took a shot at me.

Honestly, if you are not interested in my post, don't reply to it! Move on to insult the next guy who asks for help.

That being said, I hope to help you one day if you ever have an issue, or at least contribute in a civil manner that might lead you to a solution, honestly....or do you have ALL the answers and don't need anyone's help?

---

Extra fsb actually does something for you, while extra str does basically nothing. Don't compare apples to oranges. Look at raid 0 real world benchmarks, they get nearly no improvements by gaining nearly 100% extra str and here you are making a huge deal over 4.

I was mainly complaining about you wasting Seagate employees' time and flat out bashing them over something so insignificant as this. You are like one of those people that get into a huge fight with the cashier that gave them 2c less change than he was supposed to.

When you do raid your drives at least make a fast slice on the outer tracks so all your efforts don't go into complete and utter waste.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ziddey

i posted the link to this thread at fluffles and vr-zone, the two big threads on aak/aam

---

Hey ziddy,
I read thowse two articles/threads and they were great pieces. I think that my experience was the first one to produce a BETA AAM drive specifically for 320GB Drives, as far as I could tell. The vr-zone led me to RevHead, which led me to start leaning in Seagate.

Thanks for all the help!
jeeka.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by One_Hertz

Extra fsb actually does something for you, while extra str does basically nothing. Don't compare apples to oranges. Look at raid 0 real world benchmarks, they get nearly no improvements by gaining nearly 100&#37; extra str and here you are making a huge deal over 4.

I was mainly complaining about you wasting Seagate employees' time and flat out bashing them over something so insignificant as this. You are like one of those people that get into a huge fight with the cashier that gave them 2c less change than he was supposed to.

When you do raid your drives at least make a fast slice on the outer tracks so all your efforts don't go into complete and utter waste.

---

Actually One_Hertz, that is nothing like how I am. If anything I get harped on for being TOO QUIET about stuff. I was not upset as the initial post entailed. I am sorry you perceived it that way. Obviously they were working on a "fix" (we could debate that term as we have) before I even asked, as the file was date Jan 16th, 2008. So I wasn't wasting people's time. I was asking for support for a question I had with a product that I bought. That's all. You have made broad generalizations about how I am as a person based on my post. That's not right.

C'mon man, you are telling me you've never had a bone to pick with something, "significant" or not? You obviously had one to pick with me..?

Seriously though, bottom line, I didn't create the issue, this has been around for MONTHS, I was just the one to make progress on it. For the people who use it, this will help THEM.

We could also argue minute gains in FSB that help performance, seeing as many other things come into play, like strap setting changes, voltages, heat, as you know....It matters more to some than others....I am the "some" and you are the "others" in this case....

Tell all the others who wanted this file that I was wasting people's time....

Agree to disagree. :toast:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jeeka

Actually One_Hertz, that is nothing like how I am. If anything I get harped on for being TOO QUIET about stuff. I was not upset as the initial post entailed. I am sorry you perceived it that way. Obviously they were working on a "fix" (we could debate that term as we have) before I even asked, as the file was date Jan 16th, 2008. So I wasn't wasting people's time. I was asking for support for a question I had with a product that I bought. That's all. You have made broad generalizations about how I am as a person based on my post. That's not right.

C'mon man, you are telling me you've never had a bone to pick with something, "significant" or not? You obviously had one to pick with me..?

Seriously though, bottom line, I didn't create the issue, this has been around for MONTHS, I was just the one to make progress on it. For the people who use it, this will help THEM.

We could also argue minute gains in FSB that help performance, seeing as many other things come into play, like strap setting changes, voltages, heat, as you know....It matters more to some than others....I am the "some" and you are the "others" in this case....

Tell all the others who wanted this file that I was wasting people's time....

Agree to disagree. :toast:

---

The file would have been released in due time by itself, just like for 500gb models. I doubt your complaints caused anything by themselves.

Actually I can't remember ever being so upset at any hardware piece that i had to email the manufacturer about it. I do my research completely in advance so I know what I am getting or have a chance of getting.

Agree to disagree :toast:

But seriously, do a fast slice on the outer tracks with your raid 0 setup if you are going raid. It helps a lot, I made one with 3 of my 74gb raptors.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by One_Hertz

The file would have been released in due time by itself, just like for 500gb models. I doubt your complaints caused anything by themselves.

Actually I can't remember ever being so upset at any hardware piece that i had to email the manufacturer about it. I do my research completely in advance so I know what I am getting or have a chance of getting.

Agree to disagree :toast:

But seriously, do a fast slice on the outer tracks with your raid 0 setup if you are going raid. It helps a lot, I made one with 3 of my 74gb raptors.

---

Deal.
What kind of benches did you reach on your Raptors setup that way? More importantly did you notice any gains in real world stuff, if your OS was on this slice?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by One_Hertz

But seriously, do a fast slice on the outer tracks with your raid 0 setup if you are going raid. It helps a lot, I made one with 3 of my 74gb raptors.

---

what's a fast slice?


what Raid controller are you using? if you are using the software stuff on motheboards you are wasting time until SSDs come out in full swing :) heh

i am sick to death of these POS bottlenecking devices in our computers............we have gizzilion core computers and crapillion GB RAM, super fast GFX cards and some crappy old hard drives which have been around for ages and are :banana::banana::banana::banana:house and make everything else ancient on the system

i can't wait to get rid of them all. i can understand OPs frustration here but i would be like One_Hertz and not bother as it does nothing at all for performance

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dinos22

what's a fast slice?


what Raid controller are you using? if you are using the software stuff on motheboards you are wasting time until SSDs come out in full swing :) heh

i am sick to death of these POS bottlenecking devices in our computers............we have gizzilion core computers and crapillion GB RAM, super fast GFX cards and some crappy old hard drives which have been around for ages and are :banana::banana::banana::banana:house and make everything else ancient on the system

i can't wait to get rid of them all. i can understand OPs frustration here but i would be like One_Hertz and not bother as it does nothing at all for performance

---

Fast slice as in take 10% of every drive and make it into one raid setup and the other 90% into the other. This way it uses the outer tracks of every drive. My avg response on my 20gb fast slice is 5.6,ms versus 7.8ms, which is normal for raptors. Its quite a boost.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by One_Hertz

Fast slice as in take 10% of every drive and make it into one raid setup and the other 90% into the other. This way it uses the outer tracks of every drive. My avg response on my 20gb fast slice is 5.6,ms versus 7.8ms, which is normal for raptors. Its quite a boost.

---

Sounds good! I will give it a try.

dinos22, I will be using the P5K ICH9R controller for now. I will then be upgrading to an Areca 1210 for something other than RAID0, I just can't decide whether 5 or 10 would be best....I have been following the RAID threads for quite a while and have some more research to do before I take a leap at the Areca 1210, as well.

a 2 drive RAID0 on the ICH9R will be ok for me right now, then when I get around to my next MB upgrade I will jump on that Areca Card.

I'll let you guys know where I land.
Thanks!
jeeka.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jeeka

Well guys? Anyone else try this AAM Firmware? I am interested in your results.
-jeeka.

---

Just happened to come across this thread today. I have the same 320 GB AAK drive as you. I was never concerned about having AAK firmware since this drive is only used for storage anyway.

My numbers before and after flashing to the AAM beta firmware are pretty close to yours, although my graphs are have higher peaks and dips throughout. Improvements were an increase in max and average read speeds and a decrease in access time.

I ran HD Tune 2.55 for 3 times after a restart:

AAK

Min: 36.0, 38.6, 38.6
Max: 71.8, 71.2, 70.9
Avg: 59.7, 61.5, 61.6
Access: 13.6, 13.2, 13.2
Burst: 149.6, 137.4, 147.0


AAM

Min: 35.4, 38.6, 38.6
Max: 79.0, 79.0, 79.0
Avg: 61.5, 63.0, 63.0
Access: 13.3, 13.0, 13.0
Burst: 148, 146.7, 146.2


-Greg

I did this firware upgrade, but something is very strange here and I don't know if if caused by this firmware.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o220/eduzs/teste.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o...uzs/teste2.jpg

SEEK ERROR RATE is very high, and now is 65, need to RMA?

Thanks

Yay, finally got my account validated. Just want to say thanks Jeeka for getting and posting the 320GB AAM firmware. I have since flashed 3 former AAK drives and their performance has increased.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fugufish

Yay, finally got my account validated. Just want to say thanks Jeeka for getting and posting the 320GB AAM firmware. I have since flashed 3 former AAK drives and their performance has increased.

---

No Prob fugufish. good to know it helped someone.

eduzs, Are you sure you weren't running something at the time of the test? Sometimes, my nod32 likes do me favors and scan stuff in the background. Might want to check that. Since my drives are now in a RAID0, I am not sure I will be able to check each drive's Error Rates against yours. I could yank it out and put in a spare machine and test on that (temporarily breaking my RAID0)...

Good find. Everyone, you might want to check this as well, if you flash to AAM.
-jeeka.

don't worry http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/9219/smartmq6.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ziddey

don't worry http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/9219/smartmq6.jpg

---

Hey Ziddey,
Could you elaborate?
Thanks!

The problem was caused by the McAfee Antivirus, see this benchmark with a "clean" windows XP SP2 instalation, using AHCI:

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o...Untitled-1.jpg

Very good firmware upgrade!!!

3.AAM is essencial for those drives.

I can't read SMART with AHCI mode, HD TUne and HD Scan dont get the data from HD. Is there a way to read SMART when using the HD in AHCI mode???

Thanks

That is one smooth line there. Very nice. Good job!

Here's my RAID0 on the P5K Deluxe's ICH9R using the 2 Seagate Drives (2x320GB). One's an AAD and one's and AAM (formerly AAK)

Good stuff. I've got an AAD and an AAK, and I'm thinking about adding two more and doing some matrix raid stuff with ICH9R. Was worried about getting more AAK's but it looks like I don't have to anymore.

Very nice with RAID, but RAID is not ideal for me.
Do you know a way to read SMART in the AHCI mode?
Thanks

When my disks were in AHCI Mode before the RAID, I could read SMART Info no problem... that's odd. sorry I couldn't give you more input...

I can read the SMART with ActiveSMART but not with HD Tune or HDDScan.
Tell us when AAM final (not beta) become avaiable.
Thanks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eduzs

I can read the SMART with ActiveSMART but not with HD Tune or HDDScan.
Tell us when AAM final (not beta) become avaiable.
Thanks

---

I read a review on Newegg from someone who said that the AAM final was already out. They don't advertise Firmwares on their site, so I cannot confirm if it's the same BETA or the final....

I need some help in flashing my pair of 7200.10 320GB drives. They are both AAK, but this tool says that I have a different part number. Is there another tool to flash my drives? I believe that mine end in -306. :up:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by One_Hertz

Extra fsb actually does something for you, while extra str does basically nothing. Don't compare apples to oranges. Look at raid 0 real world benchmarks, they get nearly no improvements by gaining nearly 100&#37; extra str and here you are making a huge deal over 4.

I was mainly complaining about you wasting Seagate employees' time and flat out bashing them over something so insignificant as this. You are like one of those people that get into a huge fight with the cashier that gave them 2c less change than he was supposed to.

When you do raid your drives at least make a fast slice on the outer tracks so all your efforts don't go into complete and utter waste.

---

I hear someone making fun of us Canucks, eh! is that right? eh!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Knight

I need some help in flashing my pair of 7200.10 320GB drives. They are both AAK, but this tool says that I have a different part number. Is there another tool to flash my drives? I believe that mine end in -306. :up:

---

Hi Knight,
I have not seen anything regarding -306 parts, only -308.

Also, When I built my nephew's machine, I got him this same 320GB AAK -308 Drive and this tool would NOT work on his....All the requirements were met but it did not want to flash to .AAM. They must have done something to the drives or there has been a new sub-division of AAK drives that I have not been able to decipher yet.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jeeka

Hi Knight,
I have not seen anything regarding -306 parts, only -308.

Also, When I built my nephew's machine, I got him this same 320GB AAK -308 Drive and this tool would NOT work on his....All the requirements were met but it did not want to flash to .AAM. They must have done something to the drives or there has been a new sub-division of AAK drives that I have not been able to decipher yet.

---

Thank you for fast response. :) To bad about the news. :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jeeka

[...]Also, When I built my nephew's machine, I got him this same 320GB AAK -308 Drive [...]

---

why are you still buying their drives if you're so pi**ed about their firmware stuff?

as long as people buy their crap they won't change anything.

btw: go wd go :F

my results and the firmware (.iso format) i used
http://larnelle.890m.com/barracuda/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RaZz!

why are you still buying their drives if you're so pi**ed about their firmware stuff?

as long as people buy their crap they won't change anything.

btw: go wd go :F

---

I am not pissed off at them any more because they actually supported the drive after all.

The reason I still buy their "crap" is due to the fact that the Seagate drives are faster than their WD counterparts. I have to WD Drives and they are slower in a RAID0 than my 2 Seagates in RAID0 by ~10-15MB/Sec.

When you do video work like me on HD files, speed is speed. There is a difference in real world performance, especially when you start tossing fast RAID's together and multiplying the effect of the AAK Firmware vs. the AAM Firmware....

Hope that helps clear things up!

Speaking about 320GB firmware, I have 3.AEK which should be the latest for the NS models, if anyone's interested.

i had these and got rid of them right away. i was told by seagate after hours of arguing that the aak can NOT be flashed to anything else.. unless someone has been able to do this. i returned them to a local friend and was able to see what i got first. even though i bought them from fry's my friend at a local store (he's the manager) let me do a exchange with the on the shelf ones from there since the upc's matched..imo the aak are junk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zfactor

i had these and got rid of them right away. i was told by seagate after hours of arguing that the aak can NOT be flashed to anything else.. unless someone has been able to do this. i returned them to a local friend and was able to see what i got first. even though i bought them from fry's my friend at a local store (he's the manager) let me do a exchange with the on the shelf ones from there since the upc's matched..imo the aak are junk

---

They aren't junk, but they are impaired a bit. I was able to flash to AAM, but my nephew's AAK drive did not like the same Firmware that I flashed mine with. They might be doing some sub-model tweaking, thus changing hardware/software which would require a different AAM or totally new firmware altogether....

I flashed my drive without problems using boot cd. Performance are better and only pcmark05 virus scan pattern gave me worse results.

My tests AAK firmware:
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/7...oaakkn5.th.jpg
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/4...haakdy0.th.jpg
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/3...2062am3.th.png
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/7...5aakcu5.th.jpg

AAM firmware:
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6...oaammz2.th.jpg
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/8...haamyx2.th.jpg
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/704...2062jx9.th.png
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/299...5aamqj1.th.jpg

My 2 drives are AAK and AAE and the results with HD Tune were not great. I'm guessing I should flash both to AAM. Question is, is it OK to flash the drives already set up in RAID 0, or will I lose all my data?

Bump
Anyone??

AAK -> AAM :eek2:

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/3...ntelraizh5.png

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1...ntelraisf2.png

lowtcell, you should be fine, I just did it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nfm

lowtcell, you should be fine, I just did it.

---

Thank you, just what I wanted to hear. I'll back up a few important files just in case though.

Update:

Got the AAK flashed to AAM, but the AAE rejected the flash. Is there a way tp flash the AAE as well.

AAK & AAE

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/2...eaakaaemo0.jpg

AAM & AAE

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/7...eaamaaexk5.jpg