AAM on Maxtor Diamondmax 10

one80 · Post by **one80** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:17 pm

Hi,

How do I enable AAM on my new DM10? I've read about it and tried searching but still can't work out how to turn it on, or if I need to get some extra software/drivers (I'm a bit of a noob:).
Any help would be appreciated. Cheers,

Charlie

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:40 pm

Can you actually hear your drive in operation? If so, a better mounting technique might help just as much or more than AAM, and not adversely impact performance.

The newer drives like the DM10 and the new WD's with Fluid Dynamic Bearings are virtually silient with a decent soft mounting technique.

one80 · Post by **one80** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:55 pm

When it's simply running and not doing anything I can't hear it, but when it's seeking it makes a fairly distinct sound, and that's what I was hoping to reduce. Unfortunately I don't have many mounting options as it's inside a Shuttle.

Michael Sandstrom · Post by **Michael Sandstrom** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 12:44 am

I enabled AAM on a Smamsung SATA HD with the Hitachi Feature Tool which is included as a utility on the free Ultimate Boot CD. The Ultimate Boot CD also includes a great many other useful utilities.

Lemonsoda · Post by **Lemonsoda** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 12:51 am

My pretty new Maxtor 120GB drive quieted down to an amazing degree after I changed the AAM settings.

Download the Hitachi Feature Tool *CD Image* from here:
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

I used DeepBurner to create a bootdisk.

Ackelind · Post by **Ackelind** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 1:39 am

I enabled AAM on my DM9 with a tool called "WinAAM", search for that word on google and you'll find it. The program is in german but it is really simple to find out what everything does.

el_ · Post by **el_** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 7:43 pm

here it is and it is an amazing util can't hear my harddrive

http://service.maxtor.com/rightnow/downloads/setacm.exe

create bootdisk and then amset /quiet

read the doc and you will be fine.

dano · Post by **dano** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 8:40 pm

I think the easiest way if you have an intel processor is to download the intel application accelerator, just search for it on the intel sight.

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 10:24 pm

If you have a ATI graphics card, you can use ATITool to do it.

el_ · Post by **el_** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 10:29 pm

any links? why isn't the amset easy?

one80 · Post by **one80** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 11:41 pm

I grabbed the ultimate boot cd and have enabled AAM. It's made a huge difference to the seek noise and I'm really happy with my new drive.

Splinter · Post by **Splinter** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 6:43 pm

I still havent found out how to enable it on my SATA DM10

None of the tools mentioned work.

I read on another forum that someone emailed Maxtor and asked them, and they told him there wasnt a way to do it.

I think that's pretty odd.

jldet5 · Post by **jldet5** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 3:08 pm

Splinter wrote:I still havent found out how to enable it on my SATA DM10

None of the tools mentioned work.

I read on another forum that someone emailed Maxtor and asked them, and they told him there wasnt a way to do it.

I think that's pretty odd.

hitachi tools works on the DM10. If you can't get it to work then its your controller or a simple keyboarding error.

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:17 pm

My Asus A8N-E motherboard has a bios setting to enable SMART. Other motherboards I have don't have such a setting.

Shining Arcanine · Post by **Shining Arcanine** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 5:52 am

m0002a wrote:Can you actually hear your drive in operation? If so, a better mounting technique might help just as much or more than AAM, and not adversely impact performance.

The newer drives like the DM10 and the new WD's with Fluid Dynamic Bearings are virtually silient with a decent soft mounting technique.

They definately are not virtually silent unless you have a ton of loud fans in your PC or are used to a Western Digital Raptor.

I have my Western Digital 320GB Caviar drive mounted on EAR Grommets with AAM enabled and can still hear the seeks. They are extreme faint noises but they can still be heard.

lostorbit · Post by **lostorbit** » Wed May 18, 2005 6:14 pm

I've got two installed on an MSI K8N SLI Platinum, tried everything I know and no dice (amset does not seem to bother with SATA ports, FTOOL takes a long time to take up the drive and when it does it says the drive does not support AAM). the drives are connected to Nvidia SATA ports 3 & 4 on my motherbaord and are not in RAID mode when I try set AAM up. Other tools tried: Systool (windows, beta)

One80, is your drive a Parallel ATA model?

I have no problem changing the AAM status on my DiamondMax 9 Plus when connected to the same system using FTool (got version 1.97). Would anyone have any suggestions please, the seeks are soooo loud my wife thought there was something wrong the PC after I installed them!

(Nforce4 SATA + 2x6B200M0)

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Wed May 18, 2005 10:34 pm

A bit offtopic,

I just enabled AAM on my Maxtor Diamondmax 9 in my HTPC. I must say the difference is amazing! I was formatting the disk without AAM and had to stop in the middle because I couldn't stand the crunching. With the AAM enabled, it's actually pretty good. This was just the first time I have had noticeable differences by using AAM. Although, this is the loudest drive I've worked with...

lostorbit · Post by **lostorbit** » Thu May 19, 2005 8:43 am

I connected the drives to an Intel 865 based board, and I was able to get AAM to work using both Ftool 1.97 and WinAAM. Buuut, as soon as I turn off the machine, the drives lose their settings and disable AAM.

This is not looking good because even if a future update for those tools succeeds in enabling AAM from under windows on Nforce4 based boards (i.e. after booting into windows), that won't ultimately work for me if the drives keep losing that setting on power-off because I seriously doubt it'll be able to set AAM for a RAID setup (the drives won't be directly addressable by the tools)

I hope someone will come up with something

lostorbit · Post by **lostorbit** » Thu May 19, 2005 2:08 pm

OK, I moved the drives back to the MSI K8N SLI Platinum, AAM is working! Peace, finally!

I had set the AAM on using Ftool, exited the program, shutdown and then disconnected them from the 865 system. If I repower and go back to Ftool, it would show AAM as disabled.

So now, back as RAID 0 on Nforce4, whisper quiet. Access times reported in HD Tach have risen from 13 something ms to 21! Noticeable boot time (almost twice the boot time, maybe it needs optimization) but otherwise HD Tach transfer rates intact to somewhat better!

21 ms, kinda too much, but I think I'm gonna try it a bit, see how bad it is, the noise levels are amazingly low!

We still need some means of setting AAM on SATA + Nforce4 systems (Thinking of all the poor people with one Nvidia based computer, stuck with noisy seeks from otherwise great hard disks)

lostorbit · Post by **lostorbit** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 9:21 am

I just switched off AAM for the sake of speed, way too slow for my taste, can't have it all (so far)

Still no nforce friendly AAM tool (espcially with DM10)?

Chaendler · Post by **Chaendler** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:14 am

I think the best tool to enable/disable AAM is the one wich comes with Hiren Boot CD 7.3. You can find it easily in emule.

The util is called HDDM+ or something like that. Is in the menu number 6, then 1, and then 8.
Hope it works for you!

Rincewind · Post by **Rincewind** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 6:44 pm

It worked! I love you!!

I tried AMset, ftool, nothing! But this Tool (mhdd) does the job! I changed the aam setting to "medium" for my 7L300S0 (Maxtor MaxLine III SATA) installed on PCI-SATA controller (nForce2 MCP-S) and it worked like a charm! Reduced the seeking-noise to a very subtle level, no change in booting-time!!

The homepage www.mhdd.com is gone, the Hiren Boot CD seems to be the only source (Chaendler gave you a hint where to get it).

Instructions on the tool:

Download Hiren Boot-CD 7.x, burn and reboot from the cd;
Go to 6 (hdd-tools), then the first (hdd-diagnostic) and you´ll see "mhdd" at the bottom (number 8), start it;
For the first time I was stuck here, cause the aam isnt mentioned. Just type "aam" and hit enter, now you can adjust aam in real-time! Hit enter again when your satisfied and reboot;
Done!

Thanks again Chaendler, this seems to be the only app to adjust aam on my drive.

AAM on Maxtor Diamondmax 10

AAM on Maxtor Diamondmax 10

Desperately trying to enable AAM on SATA 200GB DiamondMax 10

Progress but no dice

Update

Very slow performance running AAM