Hitachi 7K100 - who's got one?

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Rory · #1 Post by **Rory** » Wed May 17, 2006 6:22 am

Mine (80GB, and flashed with the IBM fimware) makes an intermittant strange short 'graunch / scratch' sound every now and again.
It seems to work fine, and maybe it's completely normal, but the 7K60 certainly doesn't make the same sound.
Do 7K100's all do this?

Delmarco · #2 Post by **Delmarco** » Wed May 17, 2006 12:04 pm

I got one coming tommorrow. I'll let you know.
But so far I've read lots of articles and posts and the 100GB@7200rpms is the most stable and performs the best in the hitachi 7200rpm(7k) family.

The 60GB is a second close, but the 80GB for some reason is plagued with questionable performance issues and compatibility issues on IBM Tseries.

When i shopped for my drive I initially wanted to avoid the 80GB and wanted the 60GB, but the 60GB was so close in price to the 100GB (the 80GB was realtively cheap in comparison, and some sites had the 80GB for about 10$ more than the 60GB) That the 100GB is really the most economical option condisering that you get more space and better perfomance and you spend more but it's better.

Rory · #3 Post by **Rory** » Wed May 17, 2006 2:19 pm

Delmarco wrote:I got one coming tommorrow. I'll let you know.

Thanks!

Delmarco wrote: But so far I've read lots of articles and posts and the 100GB@7200rpms is the most stable and performs the best in the hitachi 7200rpm(7k) family.

The 60GB is a second close, but the 80GB for some reason is plagued with questionable performance issues and compatibility issues on IBM Tseries.

That seems really odd - apart from the density of the platters, the 80 and 100GB drives are apparently exactly the same.
There is the well know BIOS incompatibility issue with the T43, which is why I flashed mine.

jackattack · #4 Post by **jackattack** » Wed May 17, 2006 6:00 pm

I have the 100gb drive and I don't hear that sound. It makes a really light click sound when it stops moving but it's not anything I would consider even a little annoying.

XCoalMiner · #5 Post by **XCoalMiner** » Wed May 17, 2006 10:13 pm

jackattack wrote:I have the 100gb drive and I don't hear that sound. It makes a really light click sound when it stops moving but it's not anything I would consider even a little annoying.

I also have the 7K100 in 100Gb, and agree with the above. Mine is in an external 2.5" USB HD enclosure (for now), thus more exposed then inside a T4x chassis. Nice and quiet, no concerns about noise whatsoever.

kai920 · #6 Post by **kai920** » Wed May 17, 2006 10:30 pm

I've had the 80GB model for about half a year now. No problems yet...

JHEM · #7 Post by **JHEM** » Wed May 17, 2006 11:50 pm

i'm up to 5 of the 7K100s, not a sound out of any of them to match your description.

Regards,

James

Aroc · #8 Post by **Aroc** » Thu May 18, 2006 11:07 am

I have two 100Gb 7k100s. I *might* make an occassional sound like that, but if it is, it is very quiet. It might be a movement for thermal adjustment of the heads, maybe. It's quieter than the seeks, though.

I bought the 100GB ones since they are purported to have higher density platters.

cjsimokat · #9 Post by **cjsimokat** » Thu May 18, 2006 11:13 am

I have one also and can only really hear the seeking... i moved the thinkpad around waiting for APS to park the head and still really couldn't hear it.

Delmarco · #10 Post by **Delmarco** » Thu May 18, 2006 2:39 pm

Rory wrote:
Delmarco wrote:I got one coming tommorrow. I'll let you know.
Thanks!
Delmarco wrote: But so far I've read lots of articles and posts and the 100GB@7200rpms is the most stable and performs the best in the hitachi 7200rpm(7k) family.

The 60GB is a second close, but the 80GB for some reason is plagued with questionable performance issues and compatibility issues on IBM Tseries.
That seems really odd - apart from the density of the platters, the 80 and 100GB drives are apparently exactly the same.
There is the well know BIOS incompatibility issue with the T43, which is why I flashed mine.

Yeah, Check the Hardware section and do a search for "Hitachi Travelstar 100GB 7k vs 80GB 7k test"
someone posted a link in a thread to a tech site that tested all the drive and had a performance chart...

The 100 is way more stable and supposedly performs better than the 80, the 60 is just as good as the 100 but cost more money per byte than the 100, so the economical choice always comes down to the 100 being a pretty sweet deal.

Rory · #11 Post by **Rory** » Fri May 19, 2006 6:17 am

Delmarco wrote: Yeah, Check the Hardware section and do a search for "Hitachi Travelstar 100GB 7k vs 80GB 7k test"
someone posted a link in a thread to a tech site that tested all the drive and had a performance chart...

The 100 is way more stable and supposedly performs better than the 80, the 60 is just as good as the 100 but cost more money per byte than the 100, so the economical choice always comes down to the 100 being a pretty sweet deal.

I can't find the exact thread you indicated but there are a couple of similar threads with review links. I didn't see the 80Gb drive mentioned at all, and the reviews I looked at seemed to be referring to the SATA 7K100, which is no good in a T43.

The only comment about durability I can see is someone mentions that the 100GB drives can suffer premature wear because the platters are so dense.

700C · #12 Post by **700C** » Sat May 20, 2006 11:49 pm

This is the first I've heard of problems with any of the 7k100 drives. Just to provide additional feedback, I have all three flavors: 60, 80, and 100 and haven't experienced any performance problems (or strange sounds) with any of them.

f1reverb · #13 Post by **f1reverb** » Sun May 21, 2006 2:05 am

Rory, I believe my 7k100 80gb makes a similar sound to yours, and I think that's thermal calibration. It's kind of a high-pitched diginoise type sound, no?

Here's Hitachi's page on failing hard drive noises

link

MODERATOR EDIT: Link changed to allow for better page viewing.

Chatbox · #14 Post by **Chatbox** » Sun May 21, 2006 3:04 am

No problem here in my T41p.

XCoalMiner · #15 Post by **XCoalMiner** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:58 am

Nice find on the wave files/sounds of failing drive noises.

Anyone care to record the thermal calibration noises so we can all hear what they sound like?

Rory · #16 Post by **Rory** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:59 am

f1reverb wrote:Rory, I believe my 7k100 80gb makes a similar sound to yours, and I think that's thermal calibration. It's kind of a high-pitched diginoise type sound, no?

Here's Hitachi's page on failing hard drive noises

link

Thanks for that - I hadn't seen that page before.

It sounds quite a bit like the end bit (after the first sound, then the pause) of head_stuck-to_platter-Phaser-noise, although nor quite as harsh/severe as the example sound. It's about the same duration (1-2 secs).

I assume it can't actually *be* stuck, as it works fine and shows the correct capacity.

davidspalding · #17 Post by **davidspalding** » Sun May 21, 2006 12:12 pm

My recently purchased 100 GB 7K100 sounds fine, no odd noises. You mentioned flashing it with different firmware, and that gives me pause. Maybe you ought to flash back to appropriate Hitachi firmware to see if the noises go away?

Either way, if you're hearing that "phaser" noise, something IS NOT RIGHT WITH YOUR DRIVE. Make sure your data is backed up, sport.

gunston · #18 Post by **gunston** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:10 am

yup,
my gf's 7k100 is working well and without any weird and strange noise out there especially at midnight.
surrounding area is absolutely quiet.

Jason986 · #19 Post by **Jason986** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:31 am

Interesting.

I have the 80 GB 7K100 (it's the factory drive with my T43). Once in a blue moon I hear a noise like the OP described (about once a month). Otherwise performance is fine.

One thing to check is AAM. On my machine, it was disabled by the factory, and on first bootup I was pretty certain I had a defective hard disk--it was that noisy and vibrated like mad! That said, I enabled AAM by downloading a utility from Hitachi's site and set it to the quietest setting allowed. Now it's silent (i.e. virtually no idle noise or vibration--I hear less from this drive than from a 5400RPM Fujitsu!).

f1reverb · #20 Post by **f1reverb** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:20 am

Even more fun than the Hitachi WAV files is the Hitachi Dying Drive Dance contest Gizmodo held

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/announcement ... 151666.php

The little squeak I've heard has only been once or twice, and does not match the phaser sound from the HDDD.

ludu35 · #21 Post by **ludu35** » Fri May 26, 2006 4:25 am

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... e=100528-4
Is this the best deal I can find? Anyone know a cheaper one?

BTW, how should I get rid off that error msg when boot up when i replace this 100GB drive with my 60GB in my T43P
Please advice. Thx

Rory · #22 Post by **Rory** » Fri May 26, 2006 6:08 am

ludu35 wrote: BTW, how should I get rid off that error msg when boot up when i replace this 100GB drive with my 60GB in my T43P
Please advice. Thx

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=24515

XCoalMiner · #23 Post by **XCoalMiner** » Fri May 26, 2006 6:45 am

ludu35 wrote:http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... e=100528-4
Is this the best deal I can find? Anyone know a cheaper one?

BTW, how should I get rid off that error msg when boot up when i replace this 100GB drive with my 60GB in my T43P
Please advice. Thx

You've got the E7K100 listed here. You want the 7K100 instead. The E7K100 is designed for stationary servers and there are differences in the heat/temp specs (search on here for the exact details), but the 7K100 is for mobile laptops.

For the last few weeks new egg has had this for a few $ less than zipzoomfly, link, but account for shipping and taxes and see what your final cost is. Both are very nice prices, IMO.

FTC · #24 Post by **FTC** » Mon May 29, 2006 10:31 am

Hi,

Well, I installed a 7K100 (100GB) in my T42 last week and I have to say that this drive is really good, fast cool, silent,... no signs of strange sounds or noises as described.

kangaroo802 · #25 Post by **kangaroo802** » Tue May 30, 2006 3:54 pm

i got 7k100 100 gb and i only hear a slight sound if i put my ear right up to it...normal sounding to me

Hitachi 7K100 - who's got one?

Hitachi 7K100 - who's got one?

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