Momentus XT, Momentus, Momentus Thin, MobileMax, and other notebook drives

[headala]

Hi, guys, I know that it is still very new but I was wondering if anyone has any experience with the new Momentus XT hybrid drive. How is it? How does it perform? Any problems thus far (other than those already mentioned)? I've read a lot of reviews and am mainly looking for experience. Thanks!

[AlanM]

This isn't a user experience, but you can give this a look:  http://www.youtube.com/seagatetechnology#p/a/u/0/Kss98VdhSj0

[monwahlee]

My initial experience was good (first 2 to 3 week).  On the 4th week, my system acted as if it had a virus.  His is basically what happens:

1. Once a week, my whole system would run like it had a virus until I reboot it 3 times and loading the programs I use most at the beginning and shut down.  It was too regular, so I thought it might be my defrag tool since one of the review mention that it might be a problem.  Do not know if this was the problem since my whole system slow down and reboot randomly and during multitasking.

2. It seems as though sleep mode and hibernation negatively affects the performance.  On the 4 th week, my system started slowing down as usual and did the 3 reboot.  Seems to solve the problem, but was not as fast as before.  As I was using it that night, I ran out of battery and the system when into hibernation.  Next day, the system was slow and I could hardly do any work.  System would take about 30+ minutes to boot and load all my startup programs vs 10 with my WD 500 GB 5400 RPM drive.  This continue for 2 more days with BSOD, programs not fully loading, random reboots, things would take serveral minutes to load vs serveral seconds before or not load at all, programs timing out waiting.

I don't know if the fact that programs I use access a lot of large files or not.  My Outlook pst file is over a gig.  My VMWare files are multiple gigs.  Other programs I use are Word, Excel, Firefox, Symantec Endpoint and Adobe PDF reader.

Overall, it has been a really BAD experience.  I lost about 4 1/2 days of productivity (about $5K).  I like to think it is not the drive, but there couldn't be anything else.  I only visite two sites and those are safe.  I have loaded only one new program that is a commercial program.  Ran one Windows update.  I wish I had waited and read up on it in this forum before buying or Not buy in this case.

I am debating if I should return this drive or not.  I am using my old drive and will try to image the XT again.  I am hoping for a firmware to fix these issues because when it was working, it was nice and quick.  Boot up was about twice as fast as with my WD as well as loading regularly used program.

System:

HP NC8430 Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0 GHz, 4 GB ram, 512 Mb dedicated ATI graphic

Windows XP SP 3 with latest updates

[grimley]

I'm running a 320GB XT in a desktop setup (3.5" adapter) via Windows 7 (Intel Q6600, 4GB RAM). I go back to the days when hard drives were the size of your head. My first HD was a 20MB Miniscribe. I've owned / installed Fuji, Maxtor, WD, Samsung, Hitachi, etc. My experience with Seagate over the years has been mixed but I was sufficiently intrigued to order an XT - just to see. I researched and priced SSDs and I was unable to justify the expense. My little XT is quietly humming along in a mid-tower Lian-Li case. It was like putting a pea in a refrigerator. I have 4 other HDs running in the case (2 x SATA 300, 1 x SATA 150, 1 x IDE - the latter goes back almost 6 years).

So far, I am very pleased. I used CrystalDiskInfo to disable spindown and response is snappy indeed.

[diaper]

I would love to get one of these but have no idea of what to expect.

SSD's are more powerful than I need, but I need something better than a Raptor.

From what I am reading the Raptor is the way to go.

Besides I have used Raptors in every variant since the 360G and they have been fine, unfortunately I will need more power with the new apps for audio I am using.

Too bad its all forum chat and no real world benching from someone who owns similar apps and has had the time to optimize it.

For this price, I am willing to take a chance but if I don't like it, it seems like I will be stuck with yet another drive that's punished by the Raptors.

Always like the 15k SCSI Cheetahs so I was expecting something more widely enjoyed by the community.

[compstuff]

DO NOT use this with a new E series Dell Latitude... it won't work properly!!!!!

[AlanM]

---

diaper wrote:

Too bad its all forum chat and no real world benching from someone who owns similar apps and has had the time to optimize it.

---

Did you see this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kss98VdhSj0

[Bluesmanuk]

Just purchased a Momentus XT 500Gb to replace my WD Scorpio 5400.

I knew that I was going to get some improvement in performance going from 5400 to 7200 but so far the drive has given me around 100% performance improvement.

I applied the 23 firmware update before restoring my machine image.

After around 6 reboots and apps "training" I got the performance increase that has blown me away.

The drive is quiet with the only noticable sound coming from the initial start-up when powering up the laptop (Acer 5920G).

Two things in particular have been remarkable and both associated with the data transfer rate between the machine and a 500Gb external drive. The data throughput and access times have been quite phenomenal compared to how they were before.

The only oddity is that it takes longer for the machine to shut down.

So far the drive has delivered all and more than I expected.

[macstar]

I'm very... VERY glad that this drive works for some people... Maybe mine is indeed damaged and a replacement will improve things for me as well...

It might be a Mac&Seagate incompatibility though NVidia chipset doesn't help I guess...

Any PC user with an NVidia controller to report on findings?!?

Andreas

[halo777]

I have the 500gb version of this drive.  IT IS A PIECE OF crud.  It pauses every couple minutes, and freezes things like typing in a web browser, or downloading files.  Videos played from the drive also pause. My secondary 5400 rpm drive works fine.

I wiped my system completely, but the problem persists.  I emailed Seagate support, and they told me that if a couple quick tests run successfully, then the drive is fine.  [Per Guidelines: Be courteous.] The drive is not fine.  I updated to the lates firmware on the HD and laptop.  Did not help at all.

I am not the only one who has this issue.  Check the forums, and you will find many people with this problem accross multiple systems.  DO NOT BUY THIS DRIVE UNTIL THIS ISSUE IS SORTED!  Or, maybe never at all.  Seagate support is useless on this issue.

[oplix]

Had it for 2 months and it's failing S.M.A.R.T which means it needs to be replaced. It worked great at first but quickly went down [Edit: Please do not evade the word filter]. Getting it RMA'd.

[superk]

Well I have one arriving soon from Newegg. Not sure if I'm going to install it in my laptop (I have about 2500 invested). I'm going back to school this fall and there is no way I will put up with a hard drive as erratic as this one seems to be. I have zero problems now and want it to stay that way. I guess will use enclosure and play with it that way. After reading everyone's comments on here today I would never have purchased it. From an engineering standpoint the specs look awesome and I wanted to upgrade from my 5400 rpm drive but did not want to spend a month's salary on an ssd drive. This seemed to be the perfect alternative. Seems a simple firmware update would fix all the issues with this drive. I guess will wait and see if it gets done or not. It does appear they are trying to resolve the problems with it, I don't see the need for all the secrecy, only time will tell. Going to order non-hybrid drive for everyday use and see if they ever fix this one. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and idea's concerning this hybrid drive, hopefully Seagate is listening and coming up with a fix real soon. Thanks again!!!!!!!!

[rotor]

I have momentus XT 500Gb for about one month. Replaced 5400 rpm HD on my Acer 4810TG Timeline series. Fresh install Win7 Professional. So far no issues with the HD, installed latest FW SD23. Boot time and app loading time increased significantly. Didn't notice any increase of heat, noise and vibrations. The only thing that has to be checked is battery drain. I am very satisfied with it so far.

[MarcR]

You mean  "Boot time and app loading time has DECREASED significantly."   ??

[superk]

Well I installed it anyhow with new firmware sd23 and is working just fine. See what happens I certainly left original drive intact just in case. Wanted to use my enclosure for original drive for back-ups and extra storage. But will buy a new drive for it and save original just in case. Too much high dollar software and files to ever lose! I even have it backed up on a server at school (just in case) Ha! Ha!   Well I thought it was funny. Taking no chances. Anyhow so far so good very impressed I have been running apps and restarting so drive is "learning" Start up time is half what it used to be. System is very fast and I am glad I decided to try it. I am using it in a Sony Vaio Laptop w Q720 quad core 1.6 ghz that runs almost 3ghz in turbo mode. 8 gigs ocz high performance ram 9-9-9-20 @ 1.5v, GT330m video card with 1gig dedicated memory, momentus xt 500 Gb drive, Blue-ray dvd multi-drive. Will keep posted on performance and any problems. I do appreciate this forum, it has helped me a lot with how to set this drive up correctly, very happy at this point!!!   Thanks everyone!!!

[rotor]

Sorry for typo. Time decreased and speed increased...

[Bluesmanuk]

I agree with the comment about battery life.

Mine has gone from an average of 70 minutes to around 30.

Other than that though, I am still happy with the drive.

Is 50%C within normal operating temperatures for this drive?

[fqr1973]

hi, my 320 gig momentus xt is running flawlessly and fast. quite satisfied so far. the only issue i have, at least to me, is that it vibrates. its not that the notebook rattles and shakes, but if the notebook stands on a wooden table you can hear it humming all the time, thats annoying. you can also feel the vibration on the handrest while typing. some posts in other forums say that it doesn't vibrate at all. so is it just my one? i'm thinking of returning it, but i'd like to hear some oppinion about that before, so how are yours?

[channelv]

VIbrations wise I find it no worse than my past five or six laptop drives which have been 7200rpm drives as well. If you came from a 5400 drive you may notice more vibrations. This drive is also quieter than the one it replaced - a 500gb 7200rpm Momentus 7200.4.

The drive has provided me amazing performance. Performance has significantly increased in everything I do, except for shutdown time which is longer for some reason. I've only had it installed for one day. However I noticed that the second half of the day it started making the chirping or beeping noise that a few others have complained about. It is a rather disconenting sound. It made that sound maybe 4-5 times all when the computer was idle (when i was reading webpages and doing no other activities). Firmware is the latest sd23. I will keep paying attention to it and see how it goes. After a reboot the sounds seemed to go away however I doubt they will stay gone. Other than that sound, I get no stuttering/pausing or other problems mentioned on here.

[fqr1973]

i came from a western digital scorpio black with 7200rpm and the scorpio didn't vibrate at all, so i think i moght have gotten a faulty momentus xt... so i'll probably return it.

[superk]

Well 4 BSOD's and back to newegg it goes, i bit the bullet and bought an ssd drive and not from s.......

Was very happy at first but cannot live with that period. I bet a new firmware update would fix issue but I think this drive was shipped out too fast before they had the firmware correct. Hey I tried, just isn't going to work for me.

[superk]

Really kind of a shame this drive was just starting to hit it's stride and performing well. If they fix the firmware I would re-consider it in the future.

[Joy]

pls join us,bro...

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Momentus-XT-Momentus-and/If-you-have-problems-with-Momentus-XT-please-c...

[netmajor]

Hey!

How You used CrystalDiskInfo to disable spindown in Momentus xt?

[fqr1973]

go to "function" > "advanced feature" > "aam/apm control" and set apm to max performance. but im not sure whether this helps to prevent all spindowns, but afaik it reduces it. can't test as i never had problems with spind downs...

[deroby]

Mid September I replaced my "old" Hitachi 7200 RPM 80Gb disk with the 500 GB Momentus XT and absolutely love it.

My machine is a Dell Latitude D830 and apart from the obvious extra space, things DO start much faster (Win7 Pro) and also for things not related to the flash-cache, this drive performs very well, eg. copying large files like making a backup of a 2GB  .vhd happens at ca 80Mb/s !!.

I'm sure people will say a true SSD is much faster, but I doubt I could afford a 500Gb version any time soon !

As for complaints, yes, the drive DOES make funny noises now and then... Personally I blame them on the shock protection that's being triggered by either me typing on the laptop, or some internal vibration ?! (**). It's not 'loud' at all, in fact in a room full of people you're bound not to hear it; nor 'regular', but when you 'catch' it, it doesn't feel "right" as the drive makes strange noises but the HDD light does not light up and you simply know there is no IO going on ... This indeed can be annoying in a silent environment! It seemed to be worse during the first weeks, but maybe I'm just getting used to it...

Apart from that sound thingy I'm extremely pleased with it and feel bad for those that seem to be having so much problems with it... I haven't (yet?) experienced any of the 'locking' effects, let alone a BSOD.. 

For those interested, my main use for the laptop is office work (outlook, excel, ...) & programming (Visual Studio, MSSQL, ...) Lately I've been working quite a bit in Virtual Machines too which clearly (& quickly!) showed improvement on the I/O front too .. not sure what algorithm is in the disk-bios, but it surely adapts !

I only wished there was a way to make it ignore certain parts of the disk for caching, or better, make the cache look only at the first 75Gb or so...  that way I could partition the disk and put all programs on the first partition and all the temp-stuff / paging stuff / data on the remainder of the disk... Then again, like I said, it does a very decent job at adapting.

I'll be upgrading my dad's desktop soon (very old! =) and I'm likely to put another 500Gb XT in there...

(**: I can actually trigger the sound by gently moving the notebook up and down in the air ... )

[Krisdk]

When putting this drive in your Mac the following happens (firmware SD23)

• Battery life drops from 7-8 hours to 2 hours
• The Mac pauses all the time (very annoying when you are trying to edit a field in excel and the computer does not respond. You then start clicking all over and when the computer unfreezes you have ruined your spreadsheet. Apply this to whatever program you are using to do actual work.
• the harddrive NEVER spins down. This means the drive spins and spins and spins and spins (result see above regarding battery life).
• Sudden motion detection also seams to be disabled. High risk of data loss!

I say RETURN OR DONT BUY THE DRIVE IF YOU CAN!!!!

[admindns]

Hello all,

First - it takes time and effort to post about issues, I'm frustrated enough to bother to register and post - Seagate please note.

Macbook Pro, i5 2.53ghz 4GB - OS X 10.6.4

I Purchased the ST95005620AS Momentus XT as an upgrade hoping for a snappier computing experience.  I'm very disappointed to find that video playback is greatly affected.  I have tried the suggestion of a previous poster - don't waste your time with hdapm.  After setting the drive to max the pauses in playback continued.  I just popped the drive out and slapped a jumper on to limit the speed to 1.5 and it's much improved - but there's still an occasional pause.

I work in advertising and video playback is crucial - I'd think for most people that smooth video playback is something that we take for granted these days.

I'm going to remove the drive this evening and put back my 7200rpm Hitachi.

My advice - skip buying this drive - snappier load times are not worth giving up smooth playback of video for.

[glnz]

deroby -

1)  Are you still happy with your Momentus XT?  I ask because we also have a Dell Latitude D830 with original 80GB HD, and I'm thinking about installing the very same 500 GB Momentus XT.

2)  HOW DID YOU CLONE THE OLD HD ONTO THE NEW 500 GB Momentus XT?  Please give as much detail as possible, with any links.

3)  Have you made any adjustments/upgrades since your post in October?

4)  Does the 500 GB Momentus XT still feel faster than the old HD?

(We have WinXPPro SP3 and 4GB RAM on our D830.)

THANKS!