Western Digital Hard Drive Question

[htmlmasterdave]

Is it possible to get firmware updates for WD drives? I have one of the first 80 gig 8 meg SE drives and it isn't as fast as my brand new one 🙁. I was hoping perhaps it's possible to get new firmware to increase the speed? TIA

 

[MichaelZ]

that's common man. the twin 80s i got in my main rig has the same thing. the older one is slower by 200 points according to PC mark and 1ms ~ 1.5ms slower as far as seek times are concerned according to sisandra.

i don't think u can actually update HD firmware...

 

[htmlmasterdave]

So no flashing possible? 🙁

 

[AluminumStudios]

Companies are constantly making small revisions to their specs and tweaking their processes (look at CPU steppings for example.)

Hard drives are mechanical, they are very much the speed they are built at and that's not really controlled by firmware. There's probably nothing you can do short of bying a 2nd new 80 gig drive if it bothers you that much.

 

[htmlmasterdave]

I don't really care but I was just hoping they did release new firmwares... free performance boost is always nice.

 

[THUGSROOK]

yes ~ there is a firmware update.

search on WD site

 

[htmlmasterdave]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
yes ~ there is a firmware update.

search on WD site

I have before... I can't find anything besides something regarding RAID arrays which doesn't affect me.

 

[THUGSROOK]

link

 

[htmlmasterdave]

In the technical faq for this update...

Problem:
WD EIDE drives are dropped from an IDE RAID array or system after several days or weeks of error-free operation.

Solution:
The problem is a result of a feature that reduces idle acoustic noise in desktop drives. This feature may cause a timeout likely (though not exclusively) in an IDE RAID environment. To disable the feature, you can run a simple Western Digital utility to turn off a single bit in the drive?s run-time configuration. Disabling of this feature will NOT impact normal system operations. No firmware or hardware changes are required.

Like I said I couldn't find anything other than this.