180GXP Noise Explained

[Unleaded Petrol]

This is the reply I received from Hitachi explaining the periodic noise in
their 180GXP drives.. I'm happy with the explantion but not the noise (it's
just so damn annoying), needless to say, after many years of loyalty, I
won't be buying their drives again:

"Dear Mr Bloggs,

thank you for your email.

Regarding your enquiry relating to the brief sound that emanates from our
drives.

I suspect that the occasional 'sound' you are hearing is the Idle Time
Function that has been introduced on our latest drive designs as a
reliability enhancement. You need not be alarmed by this,

This "sound" is due to a brief but deliberate head arm movement every so
often. This has been added to maximise the reliability of our disk drive
products. This function is only invoked if an extended period of inactivity
is detected, so has no impact on active performance. [It is bad to leave
the heads hovering over the same data track unnecessarily].

The level of sound emitted may vary from one drive to another and as such
this should not give rise to concern or be considered an impending failure.

Please be assured that this drive design is one of the quietest drives, at
this data density, in the industry.

We trust this information will be of use and help you to resolve your
problem.


Regards


Hitachi Global Storage Technologies"

 

[Rod Speed]

This is the reply I received from Hitachi explaining the periodic
noise in their 180GXP drives.. I'm happy with the explantion

Yeah, sounds plausible and easy enough to test the claim
by say pausing at the black bios screen and seeing if you
still get the noises in that situation of no drive activity at all.

but not the noise (it's just so damn annoying),

Yeah, crummy design. Yes, it makes sense to move the heads
around so they dont sit over the same track for too long.

BUT there is absolutely no reason at all why
that cant be done silently so it cant be heard.

needless to say, after many years of loyalty,
I won't be buying their drives again:

Yeah, I chose not to touch them after they never had the balls
to fess up to what the problem with the 75GXP and 60GXP
drives was and their pretty ****ed RMA proceedures too.

Basically going with Samsung now.

"Dear Mr Bloggs,

thank you for your email.

Regarding your enquiry relating to the brief sound that emanates from our
drives.

I suspect that the occasional 'sound' you are hearing is the Idle Time
Function that has been introduced on our latest drive designs as a
reliability enhancement. You need not be alarmed by this,

This "sound" is due to a brief but deliberate head arm movement every so
often. This has been added to maximise the reliability of our disk drive
products. This function is only invoked if an extended period of inactivity
is detected, so has no impact on active performance. [It is bad to leave
the heads hovering over the same data track unnecessarily].

The level of sound emitted may vary from one drive to another and as such
this should not give rise to concern or be considered an impending failure.

Please be assured that this drive design is one of the quietest drives, at
this data density, in the industry.

We trust this information will be of use and help you to resolve your
problem.


Regards


Hitachi Global Storage Technologies"

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

This is the reply I received from Hitachi explaining the periodic noise in
their 180GXP drives.. I'm happy with the explantion but not the noise (it's
just so damn annoying), needless to say, after many years of loyalty, I
won't be buying their drives again:

"Dear Mr Bloggs,

thank you for your email.

Regarding your enquiry relating to the brief sound that emanates from our
drives.

I suspect

And what a scientifically convincing answer it is.

that the occasional 'sound' you are hearing is the Idle Time
Function that has been introduced on our latest drive designs as a
reliability enhancement.

Unfortunately there is no eveidence of that in their documentation.
Also "Idle Time Function" is a SCSI term and is actually confusing
when used in ATA terms where Idle is a Power Saving mode.

You need not be alarmed by this,

This "sound" is due to a brief but deliberate head arm movement every so
often.

That isn't new and has been done for 'ages'. Also known as patrol seeking,
where the heads slowly 'patrol' over the surfaces to avoid surface heatup.

This has been added to maximise the reliability of our disk drive products.
This function is only invoked if an extended period of inactivity
is detected, so has no impact on active performance.

[It is bad to leave the heads hovering over the same data track unnecessarily].

Pity, that isn't meant by the term 'Idle time function' which covers much more,
mainly to do with failure prediction (S.M.A.R.T.)

The level of sound emitted may vary from one drive to another and as such
this should not give rise to concern or be considered an impending failure.

That's bull.

Please be assured that this drive design is one of the quietest drives, at
this data density, in the industry.

We trust this information will be of use and help you to resolve your problem.

If only he knew.