Not all WD6400AAKS' are created equal...

[MACMAC]

So I just received my long awaited WD6400AAKS.

It has a manufacture date of May 9th 2008, thus fresh off the boat.

First thing that caught my eye was the firmware, 75A7B vs. 00A7B for every other WD6400AAKS that I've seen.

No big deal I thought, off to the races...



...average transfer rate is slightly lower than expected, but the access time is horrible. Obviously WD got a little crazy with the Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM), but we can fix that



That's slightly better! Sub-12ms


Access time aside, I'm not yet impressed since my (also just received) Seagate 7200.11 500GB appears to be slightly faster.


This was done on a GB 965P-DS3 v3.3, which uses the ICH8.

[tiro_uspsss]

soo.. u updated the hdd firmware? how u do that?

[One_Hertz]

they might have started using lower quality parts? You know, show off to the public that the drive is good and then gimp it? Would be interesting to test this.

[MACMAC]

Actually, all I did was reduce the AAM.

I really can't complain about the access time anymore, but I wish the average transfer rate was in 88-89MB/s range since I'm getting 86MB/s with this new 7200.11 500GB.

[Gogeta]

Actually, all I did was reduce the AAM..

Please forgive me, but... how did you do this?

[MACMAC]

Please forgive me, but... how did you do this?

With WinAAM, click here to download it.

[ic3m4n2005]

i think he just changed AAM, cause same firmware is shown in both pictures.
Sometimes firmware updates are given by the manufacturer, flashing is the same as with your mobo bios in dos.

[Vryada]

What a coincidence: I bought the same HDD’s (one WD 6400AAKS and one Seagate 7200.11 500 gb). The WD died within hours of use. I hope you don’t experience the same.

[MACMAC]

It's the Seagate that I'm currently worried about, because it's making a click-crunch sound every hour or so.

I'm going to fill it up to the max, format, and repeat a few times to stress it.

[Vryada]

Download the SeaTools and try running all the tests. Easier than filling the drive up and formatting ad eternum.

[XtremeTiramisu]

Download HD Tune Pro 3.0 Trial
There is an option for AAM
The default setting of my WD5000AAKS was set to low noise (128) which is the slowest. I changed this setting all the way up to high performance (254)
Access seek time went down by 0.3
It seems this software changed is permanent and now my drive's benchmark's access seeks time is always 0.3 faster than before.

[Talonman]

Thanks for the info. I actually baught HD Tune Pro 3.0.

I will look into that for sure.

I have been thinking...
The way I am currently using my system is running (2) 2 disk RAID arrays, that are being backed up onto 1 non-RAID HD.

I might be better off to pick up 2 more 150 GB Raptors, and run a single 4 disk RAID 0 array, and back that up to my 750 BG Caviar.

It would have faster access, and still be backed up to HD.

[Buckeye]

I might be better off to pick up 2 more 150 GB Raptors, and run a single 4 disk RAID 0 array, and back that up to my 750 BG Caviar.

It would have faster access, and still be backed up to HD.

Yes ! I like what you are thinking there.
Make it an 8x Raptor Raid 0 and now your talking

[Talonman]

My precious 2 disk Raptor RAID array space is going quick!


The question is do I wan't 2 medium fast 2 disk arrays being backed up onto a standard Caviar, or rather a single 4 disk Raptor array, backed up onto a Caviar.

I find myself keep thinking about a 4 disk array of Raptor 150's in RAID 0. Dump all my games, OS, and my few pictures on it, and just be done. Forget about my second 2 disk Samsung array, and enjoy 4 disk RAID speed.

Tough call... The way I use my system, I think 4 Raptors would be better for me?

Sorry for the thread jack!

[Buckeye]

The way I use my system, I think 4 Raptors would be better for me?

There you go !

[MadMan007]

Blah. I got my 6400AAKS from Newegg today , ran an error scan and had no problems, ran HDTach and HDTune and got 15.5+ms access time! Not very happy and I was reminded of when I got some Seagate 500GB drives with later, crappier firmware. I found this thread and am hoping to improve the seek times. My model # ends in -65A7B0 and my firmware as read by WD Diagnostics is 01.03B01

With WinAAM, click here to download it.

I tried the program. It reported no ATA drives with Acoustic AAM found.

Rats!

I got the same thing, from what I can gather you have to use Windows basic drivers not Intel chipset drivers? I will try that soon here...

http://translate.google.com/translat...om.microsoft:*


Try to understand what it means after google translated the page from German. I still don't get it though, hopefully you or someone else can tell us how.

Download HD Tune Pro 3.0 Trial
There is an option for AAM
The default setting of my WD5000AAKS was set to low noise (128) which is the slowest. I changed this setting all the way up to high performance (254)
Access seek time went down by 0.3
It seems this software changed is permanent and now my drive's benchmark's access seeks time is always 0.3 faster than before.

This didn't work for me. Access times are still roughly the same ~15.5ms. For a drive that is already performing properly shaving off a few tenths of a ms might be possible but these 15+ms access times aren't right in the first place. It clearly is not getting down to <13ms like it should be, I suspect this batch was from an OEM who specified low noise.

And WD level 2 tech support was useless, the tech understood what I meant, sort of, but was trying to bs me about 'benchmarks will show different information' and 'the seek time is *average* depending upon the type of file and use' as if that applies to a low-level measurement He ended the call by suggesting a Velociraptor, der, thanks buddy. If this isn't just part of an OEM-spec'd quiet batch I suspect WD of either hosing products after early reviews which pisses me off royally, it's the reason I overlook Seagate now, otherwise if all drives start shipping like this it may be a push toward the 'black caviar' line since the 6400AAKs is part of the 'blue caviar' line. In any case I am irritated to no end because this is the second time in a year I've gotten drives that aren't living up to reviews.

[NapalmV5]

75A7B vs. 00A7B

not the firmware.. just model extension

my 4 x 6400 are 00A7B w/ 1.03 firmware

what firmware @ 75A7B ?

[MadMan007]

Fixed this problem by using Hitachi's Feature tool: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm I burned the .iso, booted it, changed it - it's pretty easy to figure out the utility - and voila!

Now I get 12.2ms seek time with the highest numerical AAM setting. Seeks are definitely more noticable though but I don't mind HD seeks, I suppose I could mess around with it a bit and find a better noise/performance balance but I'm not going to bother right now. It also seems to 'stick' after reboots and power downs. I just hope this doesn't somehow damage the drive :p I know it shouldn't because it's not running out of spec or anything but it almost feels like overclocking the HD versus how it was before

[XtremeTiramisu]

Fixed this problem by using Hitachi's Feature tool: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm I burned the .iso, booted it, changed it - it's pretty easy to figure out the utility - and voila!

Now I get 12.2ms seek time with the highest numerical AAM setting. Seeks are definitely more noticable though but I don't mind HD seeks, I suppose I could mess around with it a bit and find a better noise/performance balance but I'm not going to bother right now. It also seems to 'stick' after reboots and power downs. I just hope this doesn't somehow damage the drive :p I know it shouldn't because it's not running out of spec or anything but it almost feels like overclocking the HD versus how it was before

If you're the same person who suggested the Ftool on NCIX forum, let me tell you that it's not working for me.
I tried to burn the ISO to my CD-RW and also tried to burn the ISO to a bootable CD-RW and I still cannot use ftool. If I try to run ftool under command prompt, it says the application is 16bit, so it's not compatible with 32bit or 64bit windows.

The system will boot with the bootable CD-RW that I just created with the ISO but I still can't use the ftool.........
Please let me know how you got it to work, with a step by step guide please.

[bullseye81]

I burned v210 of the feature tool using nero. The files and DOS folder show up correctly in explorer, however its not a bootable CD - "Non system drive found"

What did you use to burn the image, and were there any special settings to make it bootable?

[Pudi]

I burned v210 of the feature tool using nero.

Try to use PowerISO or Alcohol 120&#37; instead, nero suxx badly for burning ISO imho

[XtremeTiramisu]

I use the newest Nero 8 Ultra edition to burn the ISO.
After it's burned, I set the system to boot from D drive. But as soon as the system reads the CD after about 10 sec, it reboots itself...very weird.
I also tried to burn the samsung utiltity ISO to the same CD-RW and the system will boot and read its content. But unfortunately, I still can't use the samsung utiltity.......
It's the god damn compatibility issue all along...I think the easiest solution would be a windows software based utility to set AAM. Like HD Tune, if they come up with a version that's RAID/AHCI intel based driver friendly, then it's all good. I'm sure this can be done. By this day and age, I really hate to deal with DOS and its commands. With the very only exception when I use it to flash the bios using AFUDOS. That's a great tool to convert the older Maximus Formula to the next generation X48 Rampage Formula with one simple string of command.
Ok rant is over...
and I've my eyes on the upcomming WD Caviar Black 750GB/1TB new HD

[MACMAC]

Ok rant is over...
and I've my eyes on the upcomming WD Caviar Black 750GB/1TB new HD

Might want to stick with the 1TB model, since the 750GB is based on the older 250GB/platter design

[MadMan007]

Might want to stick with the 1TB model, since the 750GB is based on the older 250GB/platter design

I don't think it is, check the .pdf spec sheet:
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/lib...879-701276.pdf

heads/disks
1TB 6/3
750GB 5/3

So they are probably just short-stroking the 750GB model with the same platters. If the 750GB used 3 250GB platters it would need 6 heads too. All the other performance numbers are the same.

[MadMan007]

I didn't do anything special. Yes I had 'no boot disk' error because my system is set up with AHCI and that probably is why yours reboots. I've run in to non-booting before a few times with other iso's. It's not that hard to work around, just set the CD SATA/IDE controller to IDE or compatible mode to run the utility then change it back. It shouldn't hurt any RAID configurations because you're just booting the DOS program not changing the RAID configuration itself. I'd done the same when I did have a RAID configuration on an ICH9R and when I switched back to RAID the RAID arrays were still there and working fine - it's the same thing as when the BIOS gets reset to defaults. Don't hurt me if it hoses a RAID configuration though. :P Or just use an IDE optical drive. I know that isn't step-by-step instructions but that's the fix for problems booting off the iso, there really aren't many steps, just burn the iso, boot off the CD (change AHCI/RAID to regular IDE if needed), change the AAM, reboot to BIOS and change back to AHCI/RAID, reboot to OS and profit.

There may be a way to make it work with a BartPE CD using the standard drivers but you'd probably have to change the SATA/IDE mode anyway and the Feature Tool may not run in that environment. Another option might be to make a bootable DOS USB drive but I did it with the CD because it was the easiest way to try first.

And no I didn't put this info on NCIX forums, just ocforums. I always use some variation of 'Madman' as my nick.

Here are screenies:
Before-


After-