Thinkpads Forum

Dear All,

I've just installed a new Seagate Momentus 40bm HDD into my thinkpad 570. As an FYI, it works ok (and seems pretty fast, and is quiet), except the SMART features and cache aren't recognized by Windows 2000. I have the latest bios, and can't see any 'SMART' options when you press F1 during boot.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Matthew

mjs110 wrote:Dear All,

I've just installed a new Seagate Momentus 40bm HDD into my thinkpad 570. As an FYI, it works ok (and seems pretty fast, and is quiet), except the SMART features and cache aren't recognized by Windows 2000.

How do you tell? I'm just curious.

1. For checking the SMART status, try this:

Download the smartmontools

http://voxel.dl.sourceforge.net/sourcef ... .win32.zip

unpack them, launch your command line (click Start, then Run, then type cmd and hit the Return key), go into the bin directory of the smartmontools, then type

smartctl -a /dev/hda

If you only get a brief output, ending with "SMART Disabled. Use option -s with argument 'on' to enable it.", well, then SMART is in fact disabled.

In order to enable it, type

smartctl -s on /dev/hda

Now once again type

smartctl -a /dev/hda

You should get a detailled output of all the SMART readings of your drive.

Turn off your notebook, turn it on again and re-check with the "smartctl -a /dev/hda" command whether SMART remained active. If it didn't and you're not sure about how to enable SMART in the hardware of the drive so that it stays on even after a power loss (isn't there any configuration software available from Seagate?), you could still put an old-fashioned batch file that executes the "smartctl -s on /dev/hda" command into the autostart folder of your Windows installation (sorry I can't help you any further here on how to active SMART permanently on this drive, I prefer the former IBM line that is now continued by HitachiGST and do not own a Seagate Momentus).

Please note that whether SMART is on or off on your drive doesn't really matter very much, you must also have a software frontend that checks the values and reports them to you by displaying warning messages.

2. For checking the cache status, try this:

Download DTemp

http://private.peterlink.ru/tochinov/DTemp/DTemp.zip

unpack and execute it. Right-click on its icon in the taskbar (systray, to be more exact), choose "Show drive(s) status", expand "Physical drive 0", expand "Drive features", search for the entries "Write cache" and "Read look ahead". For both entries the values should read "supported, enabled". If they don't, report back.

mjs110 wrote:I have the latest bios, and can't see any 'SMART' options when you press F1 during boot.

The BIOS setup of this machine doesn't show anything with regard to SMART, that's perfectly normal.

Wow - thanks for the help.

I did as you suggested, but both programs came back negative, with the features not recognised, and the smartmon tools couldn't start it. Dtemp reports error reading device ID information.

I checked the SMART and cache using the Seagate Disk Monitor tools - they didn't detect it - and Windows 2000 'properties' driver info doesn't detect the cache - (this is where I got the info from initially).

I can see five possibilities:
a) when I used True Image to copy my old disk, it somehow copied the old drive definitions
b) True Image/usb enclosure fried the cache
c) Disk was faulty on arrival
d) Windows 2000/IBM bios problem
e) Disk is not inserted correctly.

I guess the lack of SMART facilities is worrying, but not crucial, but it would be nice to use the cache. It's also puzzling as to what's going on...

But again, thank for your assistance.

mjs110 wrote:I can see five possibilities:
a) when I used True Image to copy my old disk, it somehow copied the old drive definitions
b) True Image/usb enclosure fried the cache
c) Disk was faulty on arrival
d) Windows 2000/IBM bios problem
e) Disk is not inserted correctly.

I guess the lack of SMART facilities is worrying, but not crucial, but it would be nice to use the cache. It's also puzzling as to what's going on...

First off: Given that this strange behavior persists, I wouldn't rely at all on this drive if I were you. What you reported is by no means normal, and especially the "reading device ID" errors you got with DTemp puzzle me a lot.

Now to the list of possibilities you worked out above: I totally agree with it and don't see any topic you would have left uncovered.

a) Perhaps. I would try to work on this first. Is there some Seagate Software that you can boot from floppy or CD to check cache and/or SMART status? Then wipe out the drive completely, delete all the partitions and look if now the drive is recognized correctly.

b) Possible, but I'd say quite unlikely.

c) Yes, if nothing helps, I strongly suggest you try to install the drive into another notebook you might have at hand and check out whether it works there, or you return it to your vendor directly.

d) Possible, but again I'd say it's very unlikely. And even more unlikely for W2K than for the BIOS. I never had any problems with hard drives in the 570 and 570E, both took the Travelstar 40GN in the size of 40GB and the Travelstar 80GN in the size of 80GB. And I don't really think that there are any communication problems affecting support for the SMART and cache that are specific to Seagate as a manufacturer, so I'd rather rule that out.

e) That's my personal favorite up to now. If you take a close look at the two Momentus models here and compare them to other drives,

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/storage/ ... 9381-s.jpg

http://www17.tomshardware.com/mobile/20 ... nglish.jpg

you can see that, well, I'll call it a "metallic lip", covers the connectors (more ->first picture, or less ->second picture), unlike as with many other current drives.

However, there have been reported some cases in which because of this oddity the drive didn't fit properly.

One example:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storag ... tus_5.html

"P. S. One critical remark about the design.

When trying to install the drive into the appropriate bay of the Toshiba notebook we found we couldn’t do it with the standard metallic adapter. It’s because the upper part of the drive’s case is made “hanging over” the interface connector. The adapter of the Toshiba notebook is intended for the use of Toshiba HDDs that have their case end at the base of the connector pins. The exclusive adapter fixes the drive with a special shoulder. In the case of the Momentus, this shoulder pushed the case above the pins. So, we had to install the drive without the adapter. You may want to pay attention to this if choosing a new Seagate drive for manual installation into your notebook. "

But then, if you were able to fasten the screw on the bottom of the ThinkPad that holds the hard drive in place, it should be properly seated...

Thanks very much. I'll see what I can do!