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

[WiseDrive]

It is now about a year and a half since the Momentus XT line was released.

We have been through a fair number of firmware updates that fixed most of the problems out there.

Along the way, around August, Seagate shipped its millionth unit.

The number of active complaints on this board have sharply diminished as the product matured.

Maybe I am lucky --- but I had good luck with my XT from the first time I installed it.

Though I updated the firmware --- there was never a compelling need for me to do so.

Having said that, it is time to give the development and support team a warm round of applause.

This product has more than met and exceeded expectations.

Congratulations, Seagate.

[Tseng]

I am very happy with my two Momentux XT.  Upgrade the firmware from SD23 all the way to SD28.  Not for the performance, just like to have the latest firmware.

Good job Seagate!

[mikele]

Excuse me but...

Did you tried the latest drivers from intel with Acronis TrueImage and SD28 before congratulating usurpers ? you will have serious corrupted files...

do you know that if you do not chkdsk your disk before upgrading to sd28 this firmware will reallocate some sectors automaticaly ? and you will lost it forever ?

a year and a half after... do you joke us ? It's a shame ! Are you working for seagate ? 99% people do not have problems with it because they dont know...but their disk have PROBLEM and sooner or later they will notice it. SD23. SD24, SD25 freeze and corrupt datas. One year and half after we have SD28... congrats ??? You can make a easy comparison : how many people know they are infected with hepatitis C for example ? only a few ones, while the WHO estimate is several million... may be you are ? 

no, I do NOT have any congratulations for segate, I lost my data and my time since I bought this disk, its a S.H.A.M.E because we are NOT beta-testers = I paid my disk - seagate sold a disk that was not working, how long lost how disappointment and sleepless nights? congrats pfffffffffffffffffff are you serious dude ?... are you a sheep or what ? do you write us from the barn ? ...

Frankly I can not believe that you had the audacity to publish a such nonsense things

[zombu3]

^^ what the guy above said

well put

seagate drives = garbage

[Bluesmanuk]

Up until SD25, I was a happy camper, although I do recognise that many others did have issues.

SD28 seems to be the one that might be straw that breaks the camels back for many.

I can accept that sometimes a mistake can be made but what I would like to see most is Seagate themselves taking active part in these discussions and essentially work as a team to improve products for both the benefit of their business and profits and our satisfaction and future custom.

[UGeorge]

Gee, a year and a half, and still issues

rendering a video on an asus g73 gaming laptop causes cpu usage to randomly drop to 0%

Playing crysis video game, stutters badly.

Asus is just not aware of these issues, and simply suggests you to erase everything, and reinstall the WIN 7 OS! Not a clue that there are issues with this brand of drive.

I didnt realise that there was an issue with this drive untill i began to render video's using a slow USB 2.0 external disk drive. With this slower USB drive, cpu usage was continuous ( no 0% cpu usage stalls).

Where is the help from seagate?

I'm just not ready to congratulate seagate at all!

[WiseDrive]

Issues that relate to tools that try to "image" a drive cannot be Seagate's problem.

These tools by and large, have a very limited breath of functionality and can only work on a small subset of drives the manufacturer of the tool tests and validate.

It is their problem --- not Seagate's problem to validate and warrant the tool to work.

Furthermore, many users of these tools are using obsolete versions and complicating the problem.

On top of that, there are likely drivers installed on the "image" being used and other settings that conflict with the new XT drive.

The only way to get around this issue is a fresh install with the latest version of the OS and latest drives.

Then there is the issue of legacy hardware.

Legacy hardware like older hardware (anything older than 1 year) cannot be assured to work.

Once these complaints are taken out of the sample set, the number of complaints I see are few and far between.

Oh yes, there are issues that updates of firmware fixed --- and more legacy stuff have gradually been made compatible, but the fact remains --- if you elect to put an alternator from a 56 chev into your 2011 Ford, there is no asurance that it will work.

[mikele]

I use the last version of Trueimage and all soft with w7... its my job.. I don't know what you mean dude and I'm not sure you know yourself what about you try to explain to us...

[KrypteX]

I subscribe to that. Why on earth shouldn't I be able to properly use a hard drive with a 3 year-old laptop, for example ? It has SATA 3 Gbps connection, it knows how to handle NCQ, what else do we need, for heaven's sake ? Is it more like: Momentus XT won't work on ICH8M, but will work on ICH9M, maybe ? C'mon...

And yes, what if I have the latest Acronis tools, why shouldn't they work ? Legacy or not, a hard drive is a hard drive and the hardware has no clue wether the XT is a plain mechanical drive or if it is an SSD or a hybrid. It doesn't know (apart from TRIM support in Win7, which is not the case here) and shouldn't know.

[WiseDrive]

---

KrypteX wrote:

I subscribe to that. Why on earth shouldn't I be able to properly use a hard drive with a 3 year-old laptop, for example ? It has SATA 3 Gbps connection, it knows how to handle NCQ, what else do we need, for heaven's sake ? Is it more like: Momentus XT won't work on ICH8M, but will work on ICH9M, maybe ? C'mon...

And yes, what if I have the latest Acronis tools, why shouldn't they work ? Legacy or not, a hard drive is a hard drive and the hardware has no clue wether the XT is a plain mechanical drive or if it is an SSD or a hybrid. It doesn't know (apart from TRIM support in Win7, which is not the case here) and shouldn't know.

---

Because just because it "says" it is SATA 3gbs, if it is an early implementation, it may contain bugs, incompatibilities and other issues that make it actually not compatible.

Why shouldn't Acronis work?

Contact Acronis tech support and ask them.

Without giving you a tuition free lesson to bring you up to the equivalent of a Electrical Engineer / Hardware / Software and HD specific expertise...

Suffice to say that specifications and standards are often aspirations and it is entirely up to the individual firms how it is implemented.

Each vendor have their own flavors of implementation, and bugs that happen are ironed out (hopefully) over time.

It is impossible for a vendor to test for every conceivable combination of equipment their stuff can be hooked up to --- so they test for the most likely / expected combinations, and leave the rest to the errata and upgrade (and future version) fixes.

Ask yourself --- why are there so many implemntations of 802.11 a / b / g/ n that are not compatible?

Why can you not buy a part that looks identical on the outside and expect it to work?

The fact is, standards are nothing more than that --- a set of voluntary protocols that meets the absolute minimum standard to bear the standard logo and name.

But there is no testing and validation REQUIRED for most standards, and even if there are testing, it is not independent testing by credible 3rd parties.

This situation is no different from most products sold in the world as "standards".

Try buying lubricating oil --- made and labeled to API standards like SH, SI, etc.

If you really beiieve that the cheapest oil sold that bear that logo is the same as the premium oil I buy bearing the identical standard....

I got a bridge, or (another major make of SSD drive) to sell you.

Hence, if you really want compatibility --- buy the drive not as aftermarket --- but as OEM complete laptop system from a reputable systems integrator like HP, Dell, etc.

Seagate have done a valient job swatting bugs --- and having been on the development / engineering side of these issues, I mince no words when I say they have done a credible job.

Good luck getting the equivalent level of compatibility and service from many others.

[KrypteX]

WiseDrive, accept my excuses, but most of what you've said is just plain BS.

WiFi support is different among laptops because of the BIOS being written specifically for a handful of devices, so that's another story.

SATA 3.0 and 6.0 are standards and hard drives or SSDs may have only a few extra "bonus" ATA commands, like TRIM or NCQ.

TRIM won't concern us for the Momentus XT line.

NCQ is enabled and apart the FIRMWARE problems (related to NCQ) of pre-SD26 releases, I don't know how can you still say that hard drives are not compatible with 1-3 year-old laptops just because they are older.

It is true that Macbooks with only SATA 1.5 support won't be totally in line with some SATA 3.0 Momentus XTs or other SATA 3.0 drives, but that is NOT an implementation "flavor" as you would wishfully like to think.

Just tell me only 1 thing: why does a plain WD5000BEKT drive work in virtually ANY laptop with SATA 3.0 support, regardless of chipset model, etc ? It is so because of a good firmware.

Momentus XT has very serious issues with its firmwares, SD28 is hardly better than a plain mechanical 7200 rpm drive and all previous versios have either file corruption issues (yes, I've checked on several machines, old and new, laptops and desktops, so it is clearly a Firmware issue, not the machine you plug the drive in...) or are slow, or stutter or .... just BSOD or just die because of reallocated sectors and End-to-End errors.

Please acknowledge that these drives have just awful firmwares and that Seagate should come up with a tested, good solution, with a real firmware. How can OCZ or Samsung or Intel release WORKING firmwares (after a few hiccups, in only a couple of months) and Seagate can't, even after 2 years ?

It is not the first time for Seagate having firmware issues (just check the firmware update page for 7200.11, LPs and 7200.12, firmwares are produced one after another, solving 1 bug, but creating 2 new ones...)

Why, for example, Hitachi or WD releases drives which just work and won't die after a few weeks becuase of bad firmwares? People who know what I'm talking about, have left the Seagate ship for a long time now...

When I first saw the BSODs and the file corruptions with the pre-SD26 firmwares (tests were confirmed on several MXT drives, in several machines), I was just shocked. How to rely on such a drive ?? I mean, c'mon...

Why make such a SOFTWARE (firmware) mess with such a nice idea as the MXT ? I think that hardware-wise the MXT is a great drive, but firmware writers at Seagate should get their act together.

And Seagate will make such "hybrid" drives from the 3.5 series, too... I'd stay far away from those, that's for sure.

Look what worked marvels for one of my laptops:

I had 2 drives in a Toshiba A200 : MomentusXT 500 @7200 + WD5000BEKT @7200

I sold them and for the same amount of money I bought:

Samsung SSD 470 @ 64 GB + Samsung M8 @ 1 TB @5400

Guess what? For virtually the same amount of money, I have the same capacity and a waaaay faster system.

Who's against me ?

[WiseDrive]

---

KrypteX wrote:

Guess what? For virtually the same amount of money, I have the same capacity and a waaaay faster system.

Who's against me ?

---

Then why are you bothering to post here?

You have already made up your mind.

Then there are people like me (and many of my acquaintences) that have installed a stack of XTs and got excellent performance with them.

[KrypteX]

Acquaintences or not, sofisticated language or not.... at least I give some real-world FACTS, as opposed to your "Seagate is excellent" views.

You should go check how many BSODs and corrupted files and beeps and lags/freezes do your acquaintences have with their MXT drives? Or are those drives performing flawlessly ?

Please just tell us why:

SD25 has good performance, but corrupts files under ANY OS ?

SD26 has the SSD part disabled

SD28 has bad performance (supposedly making up for other bugs), but lags and freezings and beeps are still there ?

You have no idea how many of my acquaintences have REAL issues with these drives.

[Klok]

Don't waste your time Kriptex,

(Edited: Please be courteous.)

The best you can get from him is that all your acquaintance got cable problems...

You should have also noted the kudos he got for his post...

Klok