SPCR

As mentioned in tons of previous posts, the Seagate 7200.7 SATA sure has some loud seeks. It's like there's a helicopter inside my computer. I have two of these drives, one is firmware 3.01 with SeaShell, and the other is 3.05 w/o SeaShell. Both are 120GB SATA, so there are TWO helicopters inside my computer.

I enabled AAM on the firmware 3.01 drive, but the 3.05 drive doesn't support AAM! What can I do? Now one is quiet but the other is still helicopter loud at seeks. Is there a way to copy the firmware 3.01 into the other drive so that I can enable AAM?

I've searched the forums but couldn't find anyone who has done this. So, does anyone else have any knowledge of this?

anyone? com'on guys and gals

According to this page, firmware is in a read only memory, so copying is not possible.

http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ ... mware.html

Thanks for the link, but it says:

"Much the way the system BIOS benefits from being in a changeable ROM chip that can be modified relatively easily, the hard disk's firmware does as well. In fact, in many drives the firmware can be updated under software control, very much the same way that a flash BIOS works. Unlike the system BIOS, this is only very rarely done, when a particular sort of problem exists with the firmware logic that can be fixed without requiring a physical hardware change. If you suspect that your drive needs new firmware, check the drive manufacturer's web site. There you will find the instructions that tell you if you need an update, and if so, how to accomplish it."

Meaning that read-only memory can be modified by computer software, as I do all that time for my other hardware. Do you mean that reading from the ROM chip is not possible?

I've been told by Seagate to never ever attempt firmware change on a harddrive. Apparently the versions are very closely coupled to minor changes in the hardware and the most innocious firmware update results in a dead harddrive - at least that's what they said.

cotdt wrote:Thanks for the link, but it says:
Meaning that read-only memory can be modified by computer software, as I do all that time for my other hardware. Do you mean that reading from the ROM chip is not possible?

No, I mean writing to ROM chip is not possible, as on a CD-ROM. I think StorageReview should have used acronym EEPROM instead of "changeable ROM chip". EEPROM is a type of ROM which you can erase and write to.