Opinions about Hitachi 7K1000.C

[_MarcoM_]

Hi folks, any user of this hard disk around the forum?
It seems interesting, one 500GB platter @ 7200rpm, and i hope a superb firmware from Hitachi. No review in internet, no report about noise, only some user in other forum that complain of high access time

[canadian]

Hi folks, any user of this hard disk around the forum?
It seems interesting, one 500GB platter @ 7200rpm, and i hope a superb firmware from Hitachi. No review in internet, no report about noise, only some user in other forum that complain of high access time

I've read good reviews on it. Low heat, low temps and decent performance.

[merlin]

I've been scared away from deskstars since the old ibm reliability problems. But it's obviously been long enough since that time period. There's been numerous deals for the 1TB hitachi recently, the only issue is a lack of good reviews regarding noise and performance. I'm highly interested in the 2 platter 1TB, if I end up getting it blind, I'll let you know how it is.

[Esben]

Often Hitachi drives are some of the best performers, even though they for some reason rarely get reviewed. I've had several DeskStars and no failures. Some people are haunted by past experiences, and if they've lost a lot of data I suppose that could influence the purchasing decision. Hitachi today probably has little resemblance to IBM in the DeskStar days.

If I were to buy a system harddrive today, I'd go for the 1 TB Hitachi 1000.C.

[merlin]

I ended up picking up a couple Hitachi 7k1000.C 2 platter drives just to see how they were and return if needed.
Unfortunately I lack tools to do any measurements so I only have some subjective thoughts.
When comparing the drive against a Seagate 7200.11 3 platter 1TB without changing aam settings:
The idle noise seems to be pretty similar.
Sequential seek noise is slightly louder than the 7200.11.
Random seek noise is significantly louder than the 7200.11. I'm not finding this to be a major issue in a good case, but this could be a problem for users here.

[corrion]

What program would you use to adjust AAM? Hitachi's own tool?

[urbanvideos]

My apologies if this isn't the correct place to post this information, but a couple of weeks ago I received this drive (within an OWC enclosure) to back up what appears to be a failing WD drive. I began noticing a noise every so often -- it didn't seem alarming, but I was a little skittish given that I've got another drive failing on me. It sounded like a normal "accessing data" type noise, like the slight buzzing you hear when you're saving a file, except it lasted for a whole second. So I called Hitachi, and two different tech support people said, essentially, that except for powering up, you shouldn't hear ANY noise from this drive except for a humming, and that if there's any other noise, that the drive is failing and that it should be returned. The vendor (OWC) said that it was hard to say whether this was a "bad" noise or not, but that they would ship me another one anyway.

To replicate the issue, I dumped all the 100 GB of data from one to the other, and operated them side by side. And guess what? They each made the exact same noise, at exactly 10 minute intervals. After a lengthy back and forth with Hitachi, I finally got this reply:

According to our Field Engineers, the "noise" that occurs at 10 minutes interval is part drive's maintenance scheme (designed-in housekeeping). Therefore, this is not a sign of a failing drive.

When I first heard the noise, I didn't do that thorough of an internet search for similar complaints. But when they both made the same noise, I saw a 4-year-old review of a previous model on this site that said Hitachi drives made this noise at -- you guessed it -- 10 minute intervals. The Hitachi tech folks had no idea (even the "Level 2" person) until, apparently, they spoke to their engineers.

Just thought I'd share this saga with you in case anyone else out there is freaking out about their own Hitachi Deskstar! (Oh, I should note that except for the 10-minute noise, which isn't that loud, it's really a quiet drive.)

[MikeC]

When I first heard the noise, I didn't do that thorough of an internet search for similar complaints. But when they both made the same noise, I saw a 4-year-old review of a previous model on this site that said Hitachi drives made this noise at -- you guessed it -- 10 minute intervals. The Hitachi tech folks had no idea (even the "Level 2" person) until, apparently, they spoke to their engineers.

Just thought I'd share this saga with you in case anyone else out there is freaking out about their own Hitachi Deskstar! (Oh, I should note that except for the 10-minute noise, which isn't that loud, it's really a quiet drive.)

That's amusing.

I think you refer to this comment --

One of the general complaints about the Deskstar line in the past is the intermittent "head reset" noise that it makes every ten minutes or so when idling, and the 7K250 also exhibits this noise. It's been characterized as a "chirping" or "meowing" sound that lasts two or three seconds. Personally, I think the closest comparison is the sound a camcorder makes when loading a tape. The volume of the noise is slightly higher than the seek noise; I'd guesstimate it at ~30 dBA/1m.

-- made here:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article244-page3.html

Just goes to show you, when it comes to noise around computers, we at SPCR pay more attention than the people who make & sell the darn things.