Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid HDD

[Mr. Code Depot]

Hi all, I use this (hybrid drive in Thinkpad R500) for a month now - of course some tweaking is needed, but when you pass this initial inconvenience it working like a charm.

This is link to forum at manufacturer's website
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Momentu.../bd-p/Momentus

To tweak I use hdparam (spindown,aam ...)
http://linux.die.net/man/8/hdparm

I hope it will be helpful in some way

[ironclaw]

Installed firmware SD25, problems increased, I use it not for Ubuntu 10.10 os, but for running Vmware Virtual Machines from an Ubuntu OS; it's formatted ext4. When I copy on it a perfectly running virtual machine (XP i.e.) and then start it, it immediately starts complaining about corrupted files....Vmware Workstation 7.1.4. The worst part of this is that there is no warning on the Seagate site, while I think this should be done, since the main mission for an HDD i think is still to reliably save data on it.

FedeGhigo, pmorton, PSY0NIC, and everyone else having similar issues: I have created a thread here about large files being corrupted on Momentus XT drives. I have provided instructions there for reproducing file corruption on a Momentus XT, and I'd like to know if you are able to reproduce the problem.

The problems with virtualization images fits my hypothesis that the Momentus XT is corrupting large files.

[JayGB1982]

Hi all, I use this (hybrid drive in Thinkpad R500) for a month now - of course some tweaking is needed, but when you pass this initial inconvenience it working like a charm.

This is link to forum at manufacturer's website
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Momentu.../bd-p/Momentus

To tweak I use hdparam (spindown,aam ...)
http://linux.die.net/man/8/hdparm

I hope it will be helpful in some way

Hi There,

I purchased a 500GB Momentus XT in the week. I am currently running 10.10 as I have issue's with the Geforce 7600m chipset under 11.04 causing lock-ups from suspend and also what appears to be graphics corruption (possibly overheating?)

Anyway I was wondering if you could share your Hdparam settings for this drive?

I literally have no idea where to start.

[danwat1234]

Here is the official Seagate Momentus XT SD26 firmware update. SD26 is the latest version of the drive's firmware as of the end of August, 2011.



Windows version (easiest):
http://www.sendspace.com/file/mhlkbf


Bootable iso version:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/rifiz5

[lolleepop]

Hi There,

I purchased a 500GB Momentus XT in the week. I am currently running 10.10 as I have issue's with the Geforce 7600m chipset under 11.04 causing lock-ups from suspend and also what appears to be graphics corruption (possibly overheating?)

Anyway I was wondering if you could share your Hdparam settings for this drive?

I literally have no idea where to start.

This! I'm dual booting MacBook 4,1 with Os X 10.7 and Ubuntu 10.04. Almost everything is working, but if I suspend in Ubuntu everything goes to **** (failed command: READ DMA EXT etc. when I force shutdown). My Momentus XT 500 GB has the latest SD26 firmware..

[chronos00]

I have been searching A LOT around this issue. The latest I have found is in this forum.

Note that the Seagate site's administrator is asking every Momentum XT user to fill the google spreadsheet with our system information and experience. It would be great if everyone here did this, so that the next firmware upgrades also solve problems presented on Linux plataforms.

Also, there is a new firmware available; SD28. Instructions here:
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/cr...p?DocId=215451


Has anyone tried to use hdparm to load the firmware to the drive? What is your experience loading the new firmware? And how have you done it?

Regards

[ironclaw]

Hi Chronos00. What issues are you having with the Momentus XT? As far as I know, there are no outstanding issues in SD28 in Linux. I have tested the Momentus XT under SD28 with the instructions that I posted in the Seagate Forums, and found no issues. I updated to SD28 the day it was released, and have been using the Momentus XT on a daily basis. So far, I have found no conspicuous issues.

I don't think you want to use hdparm to load the firmware. Seagate recommends downloading the SD28 bootable ISO image, burning that to a CD, and booting from the CD to update to SD28.

I recommend downloading the SD28 bootable ISO image, and using grub-imageboot to boot the ISO image without having to burn it to a CD. If you are on Oneiric beta, you should be able to install grub-imageboot from the repositories. Otherwise, you can install from a .deb package.

Once grub-imageboot is installed, put the SD28 ISO image into /boot/images/, and run

sudo update-grub2

Now reboot, and you will able to choose to boot from the ISO image at the GRUB menu. Follow the Seagate prompts to update to SD28.

[chronos00]

I havn't yet upgraded to SD28; I am still on SD23 (the original firmware my drive came with). I am currently on a trip, and I am not able to perform a backup of my data right now. But this issue is driving me crazy! So with your amazing recomendation of grub-imageboot, I might take my chances with the upgrade anyway.

The problem I have with the drive is that it randomly, and constantly, freezes for a couple of seconds the computer. This is happening as often as once every 10 seconds, when I do anything more demanding than typing text, like this one... Even after typing a google search, after hitting enter, my laptop would freeze for 2 seconds.

I have just tried changing disc's APM setting to disabled, using hdparm. I have the feeling this improved the situation, but I am still testing... If this doesn't get any better, I'll try your suggestion for booting this updating ISO image.

Con I consider this upgrade process fairly safe? (aside of knowing that if the systems halts or powers off during upgrade, the drive is gone for good...)

[ironclaw]

I'm afraid I haven't experienced the issue that you have, so I don't know if SD28 will fix it.

I've updated three Momentus XTs about 6-9 times in total without issues (with about half of these updates using grub-imageboot). However, I have once managed to brick a Momentus XT by forcing a downgrade from SD25 to SD24. I've downgraded successfully several times before, so I don't know why it failed that time, and I don't know what the success/brick ratio is for normal updates. If your data is irreplaceable, I... can't really recommend that you update with grub-imageboot. After all, grub-imageboot is a relatively new package, and there may be undetected issues.

Update with grub-imageboot at your own risk.

[chronos00]

hehe, noted. I understand. I am in fact used to this kind of risky situations, but data is by far my most valuable asset on any computer, so I guess I'll have to hold myself back

So your problem was only the data corruption? (and this is a pretty big problem, so by only I mean there is no other problem).

When I first read your post, several weeks ago, I was tempted to try reproduce the problem with your guide. But once again, I held myself because I could possibly corrupt my existing data. Is this correct? Is there any way to try to reproduce the problem without riskng existing data?

Because now that I think of it, I may ALSO have the same problem you experienced...