How do I access drive settings with an external Spinpoint?

IdontexistM8 · Post by **IdontexistM8** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 2:06 am

Hi,

I've got a 160gb Spinpoint in an external enclosure connected to a laptop and I was wondering how I can access the drive settings to make sure it's running as quietly as possible?

TIA

jpsa · Post by **jpsa** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 6:44 pm

open the unit. inside You'll find an ata 3.5" drive, remove it from the enclosure and connect it to a desktop pc. Aply the setting and then assemble it in the enclosure again. done

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 9:18 am

jpsa wrote:open the unit. inside You'll find an ata 3.5" drive, remove it from the enclosure and connect it to a desktop pc. Aply the setting and then assemble it in the enclosure again. done

While this sounds a tad flip, he's actually quite correct.

AFAIK, you cannot access the SMART data or the low-level HDD settings through either a USB or Firewire interface. You have to remove the drive from it's external case and connect it directly to an IDE channel.

IdontexistM8 · Post by **IdontexistM8** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 10:54 am

Well that ain't gonna happen then....

DonP · Post by **DonP** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 1:30 pm

Ralf Hutter wrote:AFAIK, you cannot access the SMART data or the low-level HDD settings through either a USB or Firewire interface. You have to remove the drive from it's external case and connect it directly to an IDE channel.

I can confirm this - I tried very hard to get SMART info from a Cuda V in a USB2 box.. unfortunately I never managed to get SMART to work while it was in the box

I had to remove the drive and plug it direct.

kesv · Post by **kesv** » Sat May 01, 2004 3:04 am

DonP wrote:I can confirm this - I tried very hard to get SMART info from a Cuda V in a USB2 box.. unfortunately I never managed to get SMART to work while it was in the box I had to remove the drive and plug it direct.

Interesting. Technically speaking it should be possible. It all comes down to how the chipset in the usb enclosure does what it does. If it emulates a scsi device, it should in theory be able to accept smart commands.

Some controller chipsets (like some RAID controllers) need a special addressing mode to really talk to the actual harddrives and not to the chipset. There might be something similar for the USBStorage chipsets too.

IdontexistM8 · Post by **IdontexistM8** » Sat May 01, 2004 3:46 pm

Well it's firewire as well as usb2 if that adds anything....

jpsa · Post by **jpsa** » Sun May 02, 2004 4:25 pm

it's the same. but go ahead and desassemble it, its really not that much of a chalenge