Same 18.4GB HDs, but different firmware = different capacities and performance?

[MichaelD]

I figured I'd just throw this one out there and see who says what.

I just ordered another Fujitsu MAS drive hoping I'll get "the good firmware." I'll explain.

I ordered a single drive. Got it. It works great. Formatted in NTFS = final capacity of 17.1GB, maxes out at 74.6MB/s in ATTO.

Week later ordered another drive. SAME DRIVE, but an earlier firmware revision.

Formatted in NTFS = final capacity of 16.9GB, maxes out at 72.3MB/s in ATTO.

What is up with this? :disgust:

I should've ordered them both at the same time and from the same place...hindsight is 20/20, eh?

Hopefully the new one I just ordered will be the later firmware. Oh, I will be striping two drives, that's why I want them to match.

What do you think about the diff b/t the drives? This is confusing me; this model is new! It's not like it's been around for years and I got an "early on drive" and then got "a newer drive."

 

[sharkeeper]

Perhaps the one reporting the smaller capacity has a very tall grown defect list which is eating into the capacity? Better hope not as the drive will surely die soon. Best to check this out!

Firmware revisions often will add improvements as bugs are worked out and enhancements are added, etc. Always use drives with identical firmwares when striping! This is very important.

Cheers!

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: shuttleteam
Perhaps the one reporting the smaller capacity has a very tall grown defect list which is eating into the capacity? Better hope not as the drive will surely die soon. Best to check this out!

Firmware revisions often will add improvements as bugs are worked out and enhancements are added, etc. Always use drives with identical firmwares when striping! This is very important.

Cheers!

Hmm, come to think of it, certain games are crashing on me when changing levels and such (this is my games drive) I don't have a virus, spyware or anything like that. I'm clean, man...

Thanks much. I may just send the drive to Fujitsu when the other one comes in. I've had it less than 30 days...should I contact the vendor I bought it from? I'd really rather not...they are kinda slow on the uptake, you know? They were OOS on the drive. I canceled my order. Two weeks later they shipped it anyway.

 

[sharkeeper]

When you get your HBA, do a LLF and create a single volume striped logical drive. Run it for a few days and see if it reports any media errata. A faulty cable or terminator can cause this as well.

Cheers!

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks, Shuttleteam. The cable is a brand new four-position rounded cable from SVC and the terminator is an active from them as well.

I ordered two, three-position rounded cables w/terminators (on drive per cable) in anticipation of the upcoming striping project...I'll try the LLF. Thanks!

 

[MichaelD]

Fujitsu has no LLF program...at least not that I found.

I did, however, find this SCSI disk diagnostic utility (2nd from top) and will run that.

CRAP. I get a "ASPI layer .dll load failure" message from within the utility itself as soon as I execute it. I don't get it...

Oh wait. I see this "*Requires Adaptec's ASPI32 files"

Where do I get those? Will loading another ASPI layer screw me up? Help!

 

[Monoman]

ftp://ftp.adaptec.com/software_pc/aspi/aspi32.exe

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Monoman
ftp://ftp.adaptec.com/software_pc/aspi/aspi32.exe

Thank you, Monoman.

But before I install something that I've no idea what it does, I have to ask....

I know this is a hardware abstraction layer type dealie thing...what is this going to do, exactly? How will it affect my current install? I"d hate to wind up with a BSOD upon next reboot

 

[Sideswipe001]

Can't you update the firmware? I know I've seen a lot of firmware updates for hard disks at HP's website while getting drivers there, but I'm not sure if any were for Fujitsu.

Edit:

In fact I just used it to update the firmware on my Seagate Cheetah 15K drive. They had firmware for Fujitsu drives there too, but not the MAS series from what I could see.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Sideswipe001
Can't you update the firmware? I know I've seen a lot of firmware updates for hard disks at HP's website while getting drivers there, but I'm not sure if any were for Fujitsu.

Edit:

In fact I just used it to update the firmware on my Seagate Cheetah 15K drive. They had firmware for Fujitsu drives there too, but not the MAS series from what I could see.

Hi Sideswipe001,

Thanks for checking in. I searched Fuji's site high and low and I must say I'm very disappointed. The one damn SCSI utility they had wouldn't even run b/c it wasn't complete...missing some ASPI files. What the fack is up with that?

You are the manufacturer of the FASTEST SCSI drives on the planet...and you have no working tools at all on your website? That just sucks donkey nuts. :|

There will be a very upset email going to some poor shmuck in Level I customer service...he/she has no idea what SCSI IS, let alone about any "Utilities." :|

 

[Monoman]

hey, nice setup you got there. I opted for the 15k.3 series instead of MAS due to noise. although I kill that effort with the 5 other computers in my room

 

[MichaelD]

Hey, thanks.

Noise? What noise?

I am being honest when I say that the 18GB MAS drives are no noisier than the 120GB WD SE 7K RPM IDE drives in the same rig.

Yes, the seeks you can hear and you can tell "yup, those are SCSI drives." But it's not the "tin can full of BBs" sound like the old Maxtor 10K rpm drives have.

Idle and steady-state reads they are dead quiet!

I really don't think there is anything wrong w/the cable or terminator...they are brand new and w/the FIRST drive (w/the "good" firmware") I had no probs at all. I think there might be something amiss w/this second drive...

 

[Sideswipe001]

Where were you getting those drives from anyway? And how much? I just ordered a 2nd 36 GB SCSI Cheetah from www.hypermicro.com. - It's a refub, but it's only $160

 

[MichaelD]

They are new on the market, so they are pricey. Newegg's the cheapest I could find...$164. I got the first one from them.

The second, the one with the older firmware, I got from Globalmicro.com.

The one I ordered yesterday, I got from Newegg as well.

I don't believe in buying used HDs, but that's just me. I've seen those Cheetah's on Ebay for as little as $75, but that's strictly Caveat Emptor, you know? :Q