IBM TravelStar hard drive auto-parking
Kevin T.
the annoying (and something disconcerting) noise it makes when
automatically "parking" the disk heads a few seconds after each disk
access. (On my 6.4 gig version it sounds like "grabbich!") And then
even more annoying is the delay when the disk is accessed again while
you wait for the heads to up-park from their resting position.
For Windows users, IBM has thankfully solved this problem by creating a
small program called "PowerBoost" which sets the TravelStar drive into
its "full performance" mode which disables this auto-parking, for noise-
and delay-free computing. PowerBoost does this by turning off the
drive's ATAPI4 Advanced Power Management (APM) mode. Put PowerBoost
into your StartUp folder and then as soon as Windows loads, the
auto-parking will be turned off.
That's all well and good, but us non-Windows users are left in the dark
here. I'm an old DOS fanatic so I have my Windows 95 system set up to
boot to a plain DOS prompt, and I only enter the Windows interface when
I need it by typing WIN. I have also modified the Win95 "Shutdown" to
return me to a DOS prompt rather than shutting off the computer. So,
for now I am starting up Windows on my laptop just to run PowerBoost to
stop the auto-parking, and then I exit Windows and return to working in
DOS, with the non-auto-parking setting conveniently remaining in effect
until I turn off the computer. That is a large waste of time, although
I still go through it just to get rid of that annoying TravelStar
auto-park feature!
So, can somebody more inclined towards programming write a simple 16-bit
plain DOS utility to mimic what PowerBoost does... i.e, turning off the
TravelStar hard drive's "ATAPI4" APM mode? I did a web search for
"ATAPI4" and "APM" and came up with almost nothing... although the
documentation for PowerBoost itself does include some technical info on
exactly what it is doing to set the drive's power management mode. The
PowerBoost program actually doesn't mention the auto-parking feature
specifically, but as long as you have it turn ATAPI4 APM off (value
0xFF), the auto-parking will be turned off as well.
I tried using regular APM utilities, like DOS's POWER.EXE, to turn off
APM, but that is apparently not effective, because in this case we're
dealing with the hard drive's *own* built-in form of power management,
so turning off APM for the whole system is not the same as when
PowerBoost turns off the hard drive's power management feature.
If anybody has any insight on this, please respond in this newsgroup, or
let me know via e-mail at: kevtronics @ yahoo . com
Thanks!
Tim Mavers
news:3D06DE...@oohay.com...
> I'm sure any user of an IBM TravelStar laptop hard drive has discovered
> the annoying (and something disconcerting) noise it makes when
> automatically "parking" the disk heads a few seconds after each disk
> access. (On my 6.4 gig version it sounds like "grabbich!") And then
> even more annoying is the delay when the disk is accessed again while
> you wait for the heads to up-park from their resting position.
Is this parking noise sort of like a "shudder". I guess it's really hard to
explain the noise I am hearing and the noise you are hearing.
The noise I hear doesn't happen all the time. When it does happen, it
happens usually for a few mins. Shuddering and clicking every few seconds.
Like a "click-clock" (not exactly like that, but it has different tone).
Could this be what you are talking about? Again, I know it's hard to tell
from a post. I have had to replace 3 Travelstars (two 32GBs and one 16GB);
my friends have also both replaced theirs as well.
I'd be curious to know if anyone else is running this program and no longer
hears the noise. Since my last 32GB death, I have been using my 16GB spare
and haven't heard it lately, although when I do, it usually means death is
imminent! :(
I will check into your request for the 16bit version of PowerBoost.
Although I haven't done any 16bit programming in ages, I think one of my
compilers will spit out 16bit DOS binary.
Tim Mavers
http://alphaworks.ibm.com/aw.nsf/FAQs/powerbooster
Anonymous
life span?
I've had my travelstar for 2 years now...I have one bad sector 4kb. I hear
the noise I think you guys are describing, but I've been hearing that noise
since day one, not all the time, but now and then, maybe once every month.
Any insight would be appreciated.
"Tim Mavers" <web...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3d08eeb5$0$75630$45be...@newscene.com...
Tim Mavers
news:FagO8.9661$831....@news01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com...
> So when do you know your hdd is about to die? How long is the average hdd
> life span?
> I've had my travelstar for 2 years now...I have one bad sector 4kb. I
hear
> the noise I think you guys are describing, but I've been hearing that
noise
> since day one, not all the time, but now and then, maybe once every month.
> Any insight would be appreciated.
It's really hard to say. IBM keeps denying that there are problems with the
drive, but I have had two drives replaced, a friend has had two replaced,
and another friend has had one replaced. All with the same problem.
I have also read on several mailing lists and Usenet that lots of people are
having the same problem. While obviously this is far from scientific as to
the error rate (i.e. most people only post if they _are_ having a problem),
the fact that I personally know so many people that have had this problem,
leads me to believe there are problems.
How can you tell if it is going bad? I don't know. I would recommend
downloading DFT from IBM and testing the drive now and then. You can also
download "SMART Defender" (also from IBM) that supposedly monitors your
hard-drive and tells you when it thinks it's going bad.
Oddly enough, I had both DFT and SD report that my HD (32GB Travelstar) is
bad and needs to be replaced, this was about a month ago. Considering this
would be my third drive, I just pulled it out and starting mirroring it to
my backup 16GB drive. Since then, I have been using the 32GB and
absolutely no problems are reported. All I can say is I start to get
nervous when the clicking starts (it can be silent for months, then all of a
sudden start).