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.