# Seagate or WD drive - plus quiet utility



## tibo (May 22, 2004)

This has probably been asked a 100 times, but I have always had good success with western digital drives under 300gb, read a lot of posts where people have stepped over 300gb and the noise level of the drive is impossible to live with.

so I am looking to upgrade my drive again... and looking at both the 7200 seagates and western digital. There was a utility I remember posted here that allowed you to quieten down the drives, but I cant seem to find it.

Any recommendations on preference over the seagate or WD 300gb plus drives as well as that utility app that allows you to lower the noise level would be great... my tivo sits about 3 feet from me, so the quieter the better.


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Hitachi Feature Tool works great with Western Digital and Maxtor, not sure about Seagate. Pretty sure Seagate doesn't have a way to change the acoustics.

I've had this WD 320 in my S2 Tivo, no complaints.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144392


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

Hitachi Drive Tools is the program you are looking for.

I have a 320GB WD HDD that I replaced a brand new Seagate 400GB 'loud as hell' for. The Seagate was in for a few weeks and was simply too loud consistently - seeking or not. The drive just spinning could be heard with the TV volume blasting. It was horrible. I replaced the Seagate with the WD equipped with Hitachi Drive Tool AAS settings to quiet the drive. Could not be happier. It was enough of a difference that I have no intention of putting anything but a WD HDD in any TiVo I might upgrade in the future (will be upgrading my second DT unit in the near future).

EDIT: AFAIK, Hitachi Tools cannot be used on Seagate drives. 
2nd EDIT: I am using the exact drive that greg has linked above.


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

The above is correct, Hitachi Feature Tool does not work on Seagates. There are no Acoustic management tools for Seagates at this time. However, Weaknees does sell drives that have been modified for lower noise. They only sell the drives that way, not any tools.


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## tibo (May 22, 2004)

thanks guys, I am happy with my WD, but I know there is a big noise level jump after 300gb, so I will stick with the WD drives, a little louder than the maxtor 5400's, but a hell of a lot cheaper.


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## vjp (Feb 3, 2005)

This is weird, but when I booted to the Hitachi Feature Tool (Version 2.03) ISO from the above website, there's nowhere in it to set the acoustic management mode. At least, none that I could find, playing with it for almost 1/2 hour. The diskette version hangs when I try booting it on my machine, so I can't use that.

Or am I looking in the wrong place? (I have a somewhat noisy WD2500JB that I need to quiet down just a little).


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## tibo (May 22, 2004)

it should open a dos style window, first option... if I recall, it defaults to a recommended 192, and you can test the seek noise...


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

It is under the Edit menu in the menu bar at top or something.


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## vjp (Feb 3, 2005)

Ah, found it; I was burning the wrong ISO (slaps self).

Interestingly, I found that the WD2500JB drive *already* had Acoustic Management turned on. Whether it came like this from newegg, or (possibly) the TiVo software itself now turns this mode on, I don't know. Unfortunately this means the drive isn't going to get any quieter. 

Another weird thing - this WD2500JB, for some reason, always spins up *twice* on every boot. It spins up at first like usual, then about 3 seconds later - *thunk* - it shuts down and spins up a second time. This only happens in the TiVo, when it's connected to the PC it functions normally. Otherwise though the performance is good, except for a little more seek noise than I'd like.


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## jsmmd (Jan 6, 2005)

I have a Seagate and it seems like it's CONSTANTLY spinning or accessing, loudly.

I know that TiVo is always technically storing the program, but the original 40gig HDD was never even close to being this loud.

It started to act up today, choppy video, the blue background "DIRECTV" on DIRECTV Central doesn't play smoothly. 

I can't tell if the drive is just not happy in the TiVo or on its way out. It was after all a Black Friday 2006 Best Buy special...


System: RCA DVR 40
OS: 6.2.01-2-321
Current HDD: ST3250623A-RK (250 gig Barracuda PATA HD)
The temp. of the system is 40C.


Question 1+: Is there any way to do a hard drive test on the TiVo? I can't find dmesg either does it exist on TiVo?


Question 2: Other then the above recommendations, is there any brand / model that is the most acoustically, stable, and TiVo friendly?



Many thanks,

-me


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## restino (Oct 25, 2006)

i bought two of those hard drives as well for future upgrades.

anyone know if this is a bad hard drive:

Seagate 7200RPM ST3250623A-RK 250 GB Barracuda ATA HD

by the way, mine says ATA HD not "PATA HD"


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