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

[Jarzac]

Hello,

I know that Seagate doesn't support RAID 0 for the Momentus XT, but maybe some people will have an answer for me. And if a tech from Seagate feels in a great mood to answer an unfortunate customer, feel free to help

So I recently bought two Momentus XT 500 GB, having in mind to set them into a RAID 0 array configuration. I red many tests and forums posts before buying those, letting me think that it was a pretty easy thing to do.

My laptop that received the drives is an Asus W90VP. It already had two (seagate) harddrive, which I set up in RAID 0 when I received the laptop three years ago, so I am not unfamiliar with the process.

When I received my two Momentus, I configured them as RAID 0, both in the BIOS and in the RAID configuration utility, using 128k stripes. Then I tried to reinstall windows. This is where the problems started :

1. Installing windows 7, with OEM DVD. 

The installation hangs on "Installing update". The HDD activity LED flashes from time to time, but nothing happens. I waited for one hour before deciding myself to reboot the computer. After rebooting, I got a nice "Missing BOOTMGR".

I had then to unraid and then raid again to be ble to perform a second try, only to get the same result

2. Installing windows 7 from an old RC DVD

Same issue as before

3. Flashing both motherboard and hard drives

At this time, I began to read the forums and found that I should update both my mother board and the hard drives firmware. Makes sens. So I flashed the HDD to SD28 (unfortunately I don't know what version was installed when I received them) and flashed the mother board to the latest version

4. Installing windows 7, with OEM DVD. 

Still no luck, the installation stil hangs on "Installing updates".

5. Installing windows 7 from a USB key

It worked... for a time. The installation was successfull, but right after that, I have many unexpected reboots when windows tries to configure the first launch, and BSOD after the first Windows Update Application. After that,. Windows won't simply boot at all, leaving me with a black screen.

6. Unraid and install windows 7, with OEM DVD

This was my last attempt and it worked. Everything run smoothly: windows install, windows update, drivers install, games, internet... But I have the feeling that, even if everything loads faster, I have small freezes while playing games like Diablo3 (and big ones whand playing Quantum Conundrum for exemple) which I didn't have before, with my old Seagates 5400 RPM with RAID0

So here are the things I am considering right now :

- Downgrade the firmware to SD26, as I heard it "fixes" some issues with the ssd part of the drive, and try to RAID0 again and install windows again.

- Retry to raid the drives with SD28 now that they have beeen formatted once. Maybe try a Low Level format or a 0Fill format.

So if anyone had similar issues, or if someone from Seagate ( I "bought" you 4 drives guys, don't let me down ) could give me some tip, that would be much appreciated.

Thank you very much

[Jarzac]

I have to add the following :

I ran all Seatool's tests on both hard drives and passed them all.

Thanks

[JanJanowski]

I've been using XT1's for 2-Drive Raid 0 on a W7 Laptop video editing system for years now...

I'm very happy with the results I'm incountering....

[Jarzac]

Thank you Jan for your feedback. I know these HDD are working wonderfully fine as RAID0.

Any advice about how to solve my issue in order to get mine working on RAID0 ? Could you please give me the firmware you are running on your disks ? Any special configuration setup on yopur mother board ?

Is windows running on your drives ? If yes, when you reinstalled it, did you have to install specific drivers during the operation ?

Thank you very much

[Jarzac · Accepted solution]

Ok I solved my issue.

For the record, if other people one day encoutnter the same issue, here is what I recommend :

1. (optional) Flash your mother board to the latest firmware

1b. Flash the firmware of the hard drives to SD28. If you can't do it now, wait until step 3.

2. Do not Raid yet, Install windows on one of them

3. Once windows is installed, format all your dirves (I think this was the missing part for me, as the drives were not formatted)

3b. If not already done, flash your drives to SD28.

3c. I don't know if it is important, but play a bit around with the os : go to internet, installl things, try to reboot 3 or 4 times...

4. When ready, go to your BIOS, and set your controller to RAID

5. Open the RAID utility, and create the array (I used 128k stripes)

6. When prompted, create all your partitions and format them before installing windows.

And voila, that should work.

[JanJanowski]

 using an external chassis...

http://www.byteccusa.com/product/enclosure/BT-M251/BT-M251.htm

I use it with a USB powered Fan, for cooling...  No Heat issues... With USB fan... I'd be concerned without it... as this chassis doesn't provide cooling..  I;ve run it for 16 hours under use in editing.... and USB fan keeps it cool...

Using this chassis with ESATA interface on Laptop via an Express card..

Been using it for well over a year now...  I'm quite happy with  it!!!

[Jarzac]

Hello, Thanks for the feedback. I have mines internally into my laptop (asus w90vp) and they don't seem to overheat. I think that part is not that bad. However, even with sd28 raided, I still have lag spikes in my games, each time during hdd activity (ie the activity led turns on). I will play a bit more with it to see if it is only an effect of the "learningcurve" of the hdd or if it is permanent. If it is permanent, I will try to downgrade to sd26 as I saw it can solve spikes issue (but may increase read /write times, which I don't really care, it would still be pretty quick). Thanks

[JanJanowski]

I believe I've SD27 that I have in the Raid0 drives... but because I can't update the firmware within the raid enclosure, and have to 'walk' them through the 2nd drive location of laptop in order to update firmware....  Which I did once, I believe from SD26 to SD27....

(By the way, I did the firmware update with media loaded on drives.... I was careful to only update firmware, and place drive back into same slot of external enclosure, and afteward, restart everything, and  the raid didn't lose one bit of data!!!) 

I did a post here about speed increase.... I believe I got a small boost between SD26 & SD27.... 

Can you share any improvements from SD27 & SD28?....  Worthwhile????  Jan

[Jarzac]

Hi Jan I am currently using firmware sd28. I don't know what was installed before, but I sure will share any changes between sd28 and sd26. I neverv saw a downloadable version of sd27.