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Maxtor 120GB w/ HDVR2 - very noisy!
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Posted by: theguru1974

I purchased a Maxtor 120GB drive from Best Buy a week ago, it was 199.99 with a $70 rebate. It has 8MB of cache and is 7200 RPM. Has anyone tried this drive as an upgrade and noticed the noise level? Mine seems VERY noisy, drive seeks are way louder than the original drive and it even accesses while playback is paused (and nothing else is being recorded). I just did the upgrade about an hour ago - will this noise decrease over time due to some indexing by the Tivo? Any suggestions would be great.

Eric

Posted by: litzdog911

Did you take advantage of the "Acoustic Management (AMSET)" utility? You can download this from Maxtor's web site. It runs from DOS on your PC. You simply connect your drive to your PC, boot into DOS, run "AMSET", and select the "Quiet" option. Read more about it here:

http://www.rojakpot.com/default.asp...&var1=14&var2=0

I have two Maxtor 120GB drives in my Sony T60 and combined they're quieter than the original 40G Quantum that I replaced.

Posted by: theguru1974

quote:
Originally posted by litzdog911
Did you take advantage of the "Acoustic Management (AMSET)" utility? You can download this from Maxtor's web site. It runs from DOS on your PC. You simply connect your drive to your PC, boot into DOS, run "AMSET", and select the "Quiet" option. Read more about it here:

http://www.rojakpot.com/default.asp...&var1=14&var2=0

I have two Maxtor 120GB drives in my Sony T60 and combined they're quieter than the original 40G Quantum that I replaced.

Hi -

Which version of the Maxtor 120GB drives do you have? I went ahead and got the 7200 rpm one, with 8MB of cache b/c the rebate from Best Buy made it a great deal.

Also, the AMSET utility only supports these drives (according to the link you sent me:
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40 UDMA/100
Maxtor DiamondMax 60 UDMA/100
Maxtor DiamondMax VL 30 UDMA/100
Maxtor DiamondMax D540X
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X

I have no idea how to determine if my drive is one of these models. It says Maxtor DiamondMax Plus on the label, but no other letters/model #s. Further, the article says these drives are shipped set to "quiet" mode automatically.

Any ideas?
Eric

Posted by: weaknees

Are you sure the noise you're hearing is not the fan?

If it's the drive, then you might have a defective drive. Every once and a while, when we were using Maxtors, we'd come across a drive that was extremely loud. It was obvious from the second it was powered up. May be worth exchanging it at Best Buy.

If it's the fan and you want a quieter solution, check in with us in about 7-10 days. We expect to have a custom upgrade solution that will also cool and quiet the HDVR2 significantly.

Michael

Posted by: theguru1974

quote:
Originally posted by weaknees
Are you sure the noise you're hearing is not the fan?

If it's the drive, then you might have a defective drive. Every once and a while, when we were using Maxtors, we'd come across a drive that was extremely loud. It was obvious from the second it was powered up. May be worth exchanging it at Best Buy.

If it's the fan and you want a quieter solution, check in with us in about 7-10 days. We expect to have a custom upgrade solution that will also cool and quiet the HDVR2 significantly.

Michael

Definitely not the fan. It's the whole clickity-clacking sound of hard drive access - it's been on for about 4 - 5 hours now since the upgrade and while recording, it's clicking away, sounding a lot like my PC hard drive. Also, when fast-forwarding, it's clicking all the way through. Playback now is almost silent, with a few random clicks here and there.

I need to know if anyone has tried running the AMSET util on the Maxtor 120GB, 7200 rpm, 8MB cache "Ultra Series" drive.

Thanks!
Eric

Posted by: litzdog911

I have two Maxtor DiamondMax drives, 7200rpm with 2MB cache. The AMSET utility supports ALL of the DiamondMax series drives. It can't hurt to try this utility because it automatically checks the drive(s) to determine if they're supported or not. Hopefully you also found the AMSET documentation at the Maxtor site.

I'm not sure if my drives were default set to "Quite" since I went ahead and ran the AMSET utility and set them to Quite anyway.

If running AMSET does't quiet down your drives, then something is wrong with it. Mine are much quieter than the Quantum 40GB drive they replaced.

Posted by: drugrep

I too bought the 120GB drive at Best Buy for $199 less $70 rebate.

I think mine sounds great. Didn't run any utility or nothing.

I did replace my original A drive in my Sony SVR-2000 with this drive. I didn't add it as a B drive.