does this Seagate 2TB ST2000DL003 drive use the new AF 4k sectors?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
T

ty1er

Senior member
May 14, 2004
807
0
0
No where on the box nor in the instructions does it state that this uses the new AdvanceFormat 4K sectors. But when I search around the net for "ST2000DL003-9VT166"
I came up with this review http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/barracuda_green_2tb/
stating that it uses the new 4k sectors. Tho the drive in that review has a 64mb of cache, mines only has 32mb.

Here is the info off the drive
2TB - 5900rpm 64mb cache 3Gb/s data rate
ST320005N4A1AS-RK
ST2000DL003-9VT166
UPC-763649017616

I'm just curious, little things like this will drive me nuts until i find an answer.
-ty1er/
 
Last edited:
M

murphyc

Senior member
Apr 7, 2012
235
0
0
LMGTFY
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=add6439d45c0b210VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD

It's the first google search result and it clearly says it's an AF disk. However it's strange it doesn't say it on the box. Although it really shouldn't matter except for 11 year old XP. The rest of the OS partitioning tools partition on 1MB boundaries, so the alignment between 512 logical sectors and 4096 physical sectors is assured.

It's funny, on that same page, they have a link "Don't be afraid of 4K".
 
M

murphyc

Senior member
Apr 7, 2012
235
0
0
Huh? The link you provided for Barracuda Internal Kit 5900 very clearly says the model is "Model ST320005N4A1AS-RK" at the bottom of the gray box where you click on 2TB capacity. And if you go down to the Specifications tab, again *twice* lists ST320005N4A1AS-RK. That disk is a 32MB cache. But you said your disk box had a sticker on it saying it was 64MB.

If you have a drive in your hand, that you pulled "ST2000DL003-9VT166" like you said in post 1, then you have a 6Gb/s interface, 64MB cache, AF disk.

Haha, I have no idea what you're smoking.
 
BFG10K

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,709
3,000
126
I too am confused by the OP’s posts, but if he has a 1 TB/platter drive then he has a 4K drive.
 
T

ty1er

Senior member
May 14, 2004
807
0
0
murphyc said:
Huh? The link you provided for Barracuda Internal Kit 5900 very clearly says the model is "Model ST320005N4A1AS-RK" at the bottom of the gray box where you click on 2TB capacity. And if you go down to the Specifications tab, again *twice* lists ST320005N4A1AS-RK. That disk is a 32MB cache. But you said your disk box had a sticker on it saying it was 64MB.

If you have a drive in your hand, that you pulled "ST2000DL003-9VT166" like you said in post 1, then you have a 6Gb/s interface, 64MB cache, AF disk.

Haha, I have no idea what you're smoking.
Click to expand...

I'm also confused........

the specs on the box clearly state
3gb/s Not 6gb/s data rate. Printed right on side of the box.

But since the 64mb of Cache spec is printed on a sticker not physically on the box leads me that this has changed from original 32mb on this drive.

Like is states on the seagate page .
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/internal-storage/barracuda-5900-kit
To the larger 64mb of cache version.

Acording the the HDs listed on the seagate page. There is a
2tb - 32mb, 3.0gb/s HD and the newer
2tb - 64mb, 6.0gb/s HD

No mention of a
2tb - 64mb, 3.0gb/s HD.


I'm gonna let this one go, since if i can find a anwser search around the manufactures page/forums. How's anybody else gonna know.

No biggie/
-ty1er
 
Last edited:
M

murphyc

Senior member
Apr 7, 2012
235
0
0
You have previously told us that the model number of the disk in your hand is ST2000DL003. Why do you keep posting a URL for a "internal kit 5900 rpm" disk with a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MODEL NUMBER than what you say you have?
 
Last edited:
E

ericloewe

Senior member
Dec 14, 2011
260
0
76
As far as I was able to determine around 1.5 years ago, any 2TB HDD is 4k except for Samsung F3s (had to buy two quickly for my WHS v.1).
 
T

ty1er

Senior member
May 14, 2004
807
0
0
murphyc said:
You have previously told us that the model number of the disk in your hand is ST2000DL003. Why do you keep posting a URL for a "internal kit 5900 rpm" disk with a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MODEL NUMBER than what you say you have?
Click to expand...

Very simple,
The model number on the box is ST320005N4A1AS-RK.
The number phyically printed on the HD is ST2000DL003.

Here is the info i original posted...

"Here is the info off the drive
2TB - 5900rpm 64mb cache 3Gb/s data rate
ST320005N4A1AS-RK
ST2000DL003-9VT166
UPC-763649017616"

The bold txt is in not on the drive, but on the retail box. My mistake.
 
T

ty1er

Senior member
May 14, 2004
807
0
0
murphyc said:
2TB enterprise green drive, not AF.

FWIW, there are two kinds of AF disks. 512e and 4Kn. Currently there are only 512e disks floating around. They are 4KB physical sectors, and 512B logical sectors. The 4Kn disks are 4KB physical and logical sectors.
Click to expand...

Ah, interesting.
 
M

murphyc

Senior member
Apr 7, 2012
235
0
0
ty1er said:
Very simple,
The model number on the box is ST320005N4A1AS-RK.
The number phyically printed on the HD is ST2000DL003.
The bold txt is in not on the drive, but on the retail box. My mistake.
Click to expand...

Yeah. So clearly you've got a ST2000DL003. It was probably a return and stuffed into the wrong box.

If you have any question about the drive being mislabled, you can boot a linux LiveCD, install hdparm, and use hdparm -I to get information from the drive firmware. Assuming you're not concerned about the firmware being hacked, you can plug in the reported serial number into Seagate's warranty database, and find out for sure what model it is. Throw the box away, it's irrelevant and has corrupted your thinking.
 
U

unitron

Junior Member
Aug 7, 2012
4
0
0
As of fall 2011, the actual drive model inside the

ST320005N4A1AS-RK

retail box
is the

ST2000DL003-9VT166

I know because I picked up 2 from Best Buy at the Black Friday price.

(tried one in an S3 HD TiVo, didn't seem to work, used a WD20EADS instead and put both Seagates in a computer running XP and TiVo Desktop and they're working fine holding copied shows)

According to a communication from Seagate from a few years ago, the RK stands for "retail kit".

Often the same drive model will be available as a bare drive under the model number of the drive itself. This is usually called an OEM drive.


Which version of that drive model number comes in that box number depends on when it was made.

Here's what a June 2012 feedback posting at NewEgg had to say

"Unfortunately the replacement drives have the CC98 firmware on them while the orginal ones have CC32. CC32 reports the sector size as 512 logical/512 physical. CC98 reports 512 logical/4096 physical."


And sometimes the same retail box number can contain different actual drive models.

For example the Western Digital
WDBAAY0020HNC-NRSN

seems to be whatever 2TB Caviar Green they happen to have lying around.


At various times it's been the WD20EACS, WD20EADS, WD20EARS, WD20EARX, and who knows what else.
 
_Rick_

_Rick_

Diamond Member
Apr 20, 2012
3,945
70
91
unitron said:
"Unfortunately the replacement drives have the CC98 firmware on them while the orginal ones have CC32. CC32 reports the sector size as 512 logical/512 physical. CC98 reports 512 logical/4096 physical."
Click to expand...

What's unfortunate about a device correctly reporting its capabilities?
 
U

unitron

Junior Member
Aug 7, 2012
4
0
0
_Rick_ said:
What's unfortunate about a device correctly reporting its capabilities?
Click to expand...


Here's his entire statement:
___________________________________________________________
N/A
6/5/2012 4:11:41 PM
Tech Level: High
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
Verified Owner


3 out of 5 eggsFirmware makes a difference

Pros: Cheap, lots of space, low power consumption.

Cons: These drives have a tendency to fail during the first week or two of use. I bought 30 of these drives that I run in a raid 10. Four of them failed in the first two weeks. Ten the problem started, see below.

Other Thoughts: Newegg was excellent, as usual, in exchanging the drives for me. Unfortunately the replacement drives have the CC98 firmware on them while the orginal ones have CC32. CC32 reports the sector size as 512 logical/512 physical. CC98 reports 512 logical/4096 physical. Since the RAID10 uses the physical sector size it will not accept the replacement drives and I'm in a world of hurt.

___________________________________________________________

Unfortunate for him, because it screws up his raid array.

And he didn't say it was unfortunate that it reports accurately, he says it's unfortunate that the change was made on drives being assigned the same model number, which means that the replacements he got aren't really replacements because they are not the same as the drives which are being replaced.
 
M

murphyc

Senior member
Apr 7, 2012
235
0
0
I'd say it's bogus for the same model number to have different physical sector sizes, and I find it hard to believe that's true. I have no problem with two physically identical drives, differing only in firmware version and thus physical sector sizes, having different model numbers.

As for why the drives are dropping out of an array, there's very little information to go on. The ECC of an AF disk (one with 4k sectors) will be better able to correct for errors than the ECC of a non-AF disk. Better defined as better able to detect and correct for errors. Further the nature of the failure is unreported, for all we know the drives are operating in a 180F oven.

Drives work, and then they die. Unremarkable. I rather wish people reporting disk failures would also post full before and after SMART statistics on the disk as well as detailed usage conditions, or just keep their complaints between themselves and the manufacturer.
 
U

unitron

Junior Member
Aug 7, 2012
4
0
0
murphyc said:
I'd say it's bogus for the same model number to have different physical sector sizes, and I find it hard to believe that's true. I have no problem with two physically identical drives, differing only in firmware version and thus physical sector sizes, having different model numbers.

As for why the drives are dropping out of an array, there's very little information to go on. The ECC of an AF disk (one with 4k sectors) will be better able to correct for errors than the ECC of a non-AF disk. Better defined as better able to detect and correct for errors. Further the nature of the failure is unreported, for all we know the drives are operating in a 180F oven.

Drives work, and then they die. Unremarkable. I rather wish people reporting disk failures would also post full before and after SMART statistics on the disk as well as detailed usage conditions, or just keep their complaints between themselves and the manufacturer.
Click to expand...


None of which changes the fact that the ST2000DL003-9VT166, when purchased in a retail box, comes in a box with ST320005N4A1AS-RK on the outside instead of ST2000DL003-9VT166. Or at least it has been, and did so for both the OP and myself.

(this doesn't guarantee that, between now and the end of time, anyone buying a box with that number will be assured of getting that model, or that someone buying a box with a different number might not get that model)


As for the guy who posted the feeback on NewEgg which I used to illustrate the point that the number on the box is not always a guarantee of getting the exact (certainly not exact enough for his purposes) same drive as was in a box with that number a few months earlier, feel free to go there and argue with him about it.
 
M

murphyc

Senior member
Apr 7, 2012
235
0
0
unitron said:
None of which changes the fact that the ST2000DL003-9VT166, when purchased in a retail box, comes in a box with ST320005N4A1AS-RK on the outside instead of ST2000DL003-9VT166. Or at least it has been, and did so for both the OP and myself.
Click to expand...

I agree that is crazy. The cache sizes are different, the SATA spec is different, on and on. I'd say this is wrong. The model of the product on the package should match the model of the product inside the package.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom