Does Samsung M8 (HN-M101MBB) auto spin down and/or park heads?

[Zidrewndacht]

So, I'm planning to get a new 1TB SATA hard disk, but there's not many choices available around here.

I'll be using it as a secondary (actually fourth or fifth, LOL) disk on a desktop.

The only options available (and the buts of them) are:

WD Green WD10EARS (It spins down all the time. And I don't like WD cheap drives, only Blacks, but they aren't available);
WD Scorpio Blue WD10JPVT (same as above)
Hitachi HDS721010DLE630 (the fastest on the list, but I don't trust this one enough)
Seagate ST31000340NS (It's old. I don't want a 3,5" disk if it's slower than the Samsung F3)

And the Samsung M8 HN-M101MBB.

A notebook disk is preferable over a desktop disk, as I haven't really got "comfortable" space for additional 3,5" disks on my case anymore.

The question is what's on the thread's title. Does this Samsung's notebook HDD spin down after some amount of idle time, by itself? I mean, being this done by the drive's firmware, not the OS. I was unable to find info about this "feature" on this specific disk.

I want the new drive to be responsive anytime I access it, that is, with no three seconds lags happening once in awhile at all, because the disk spun down without my consent.

If it does spin down by default, can it be disabled via AAM/APM settings?

I'd like it not to park its head automatically too, but I believe that's not possible.

(If you wonder, there are no other drive choices because I'll be buying it locally, not online. I'd definitely prefer a Samsung F3 by Seagate, but I can't find it anymore)

Thanks in advance.

 

[sub.mesa]

Harddrives should not spin down by default; this has to originate from your operating system instead.

Probably you are talking about headparking, which can be controlled via APM setting. AAM is about seek power/performance/noise and is vastly different to APM. A setting of APM 254 usually disables headparking altogether.

You are talking about Samsung M8 - not many people remember part numbers; I suggest you use model numbers instead. This drive also employs headparking and as said, can be disabled with APM setting 254. The bad thing is that the APM setting is volatile and is reset to the default 128 setting after a power cycle. Some harddrives have vendor utilities to permanently disable headparking by setting APM to 254 and this setting is kept after a power cycle.

But if you want a quiet and highly responsive system drive, you ought to look at a good SSD instead. Harddrives are best used for mass storage; movies, music; most files above 1 megabyte.

 

[Zidrewndacht]

Sub.mesa, thanks very much for the reply.

I'm sorry for not calling it M8 since the starting, I'll see if that can be edited.

The disk will be used mainly for mass storage, yes.

I have a 500GB Samsung F3 as system drive, and some smaller capacity disks as storage ones (160/80/80 GB), but I'm still in need of space more than performance currently. I should be getting an SSD only later this year, hopefully.

When I said I want it responsive, I meant I just don't want it to lockup for a couple seconds when accessed after being idle for a while (as my desktop disks don't do it and are always ready).

I'll look for a tool to permanently disable APM on this disk then (something like ESTOOLS?)

I see CrystalDiskInfo allows to change it and have an "Auto AAM/APM adaption" option, but I'm not sure that would work well because I use hibernation all the time, so, if CDI makes the change only right after the software opens, it won't work because it'll stay open between sessions. Unless CDI checks the setting constantly instead, or could "sense" the computer woke up from hibernation and fix the setting. I don't know if it does.