Seagate Barracuda noise problem

[Stercus]

I read for some time ago that seagate has a program that could remove the noise from the Barracuda IV disk. But I cannot find that program, where can I get it?

 

[Lord Evermore]

Remove WHAT noise? The factory settings are nearly silent. I had my case open the other day, and my head sitting next to while swapping memory, and when I turned it on, I had to check the LED to make sure the hard drive was working, even during the heavy access of bootup!

According to Storage Review, IBM's utility can change the Seagate drives, but Seagate's own tool is only available through tech support. However Seagate drives ship with the acoustic management enabled. The default setting is probably the "performance" setting, which reduces noise slightly but without killing performance. The next step is "quiet" mode, which kills noise entirely but results in much higher seek times. The acoustic management only affects seek noise, so if your drive is making noise while idling, this isn't going to fix it. And the Barracuda's seek noise is almost nothing.

 

[pukemon]

Yeah no kidding, i can hear my PC Power & Cooling Silencer fans over the Seagate Barracuda ATA IV's i have i my system, and only when listening directly next to the case. If the idle noise is actually audible from where you're sitting (and if your computer is under a table) then you may have a defective drive.

 

[Stercus]

It is not a noise that should be there like when it is working (I cannot hear that either). But when it is turned on it has a deep sound, this sound is not just a common sound since it is like woom - silent - woom. Not like a loud fan that is just loud. Notice that it always goes like the deep sound and silence. As far as I remember there was a problem with a strange noise on some Barracudas but Seagate made a bug fix or so for it (that is very strange but they did).

 

[mechBgon]

I have the smscan.exe utility that removes the "whining mosquito" noise from the Barracuda ATA IV which results from its idle scan. If you care to post your email address I'll email it to you along with their seaaam.exe utility (which adjusts the auto acoustic management level so you can speed up/slow down seeks & associated seek noise).

 

[Rob G.]

 

[Rob G.]

You can download my copy of the utility from HERE

You'll need to create a bootdisk and run it from DOS.

Placing the drive into 'Quiet' mode (compared to 'Performance') will reduce the seek noise considerably.