Segate & raid?

[gork]

I heard that Seagate Barracuda 4 had some problems with raid, is this true, and is it all of them?

[Jon]

If I remember correctly, they have a latency problem with Promise RAID controllers. As far as it being all of them or not, I don't know. I've seen very few use them at all and more that did had problems than those that didn't.

As far as I know they have no problems on HPT controlled RAID cards and are terrific drives in stand-alone situations.

I believe StorageReview.com has an article on it. Might want to search over there and see what comes up.

[gork]

Thanks Jon, but it didnt reakky help, couse i was told the exact opposite in a danish forum, they said that it was HPT controllers that wore bad.:(

this (http://www.msicomputer.com/product/detail_spec/product_detail.asp?model=MS-9105RL) is the mobo i'll be getting, and i would really like to get a couple of drives that would work in a raid 0 array in this mobo.

[Sonny]

They used to be no good for RAID but the firmware of the HDDs have been updated & are now ok.

Seagate Barracuda IV is so fast that the RAID controller can't buffer the data quickly enough and so the disk has to read everything twice and hence runs much slower. The problem has been reported on several different motherboard chipsets and several different RAID controllers.

Update (10 April 2002): Seagate are apparently now offering updated drives with improved firmware that resolves this issue. Contact Seagate customer support for details

[gork]

They used to be no good for RAID but the firmware of the HDDs have been updated & are now ok.
Sounds nice! Are the new drives shipped with this new firmware, or do i need to flash them or something? and how is this done?

[Sonny]

The best thing to do is to contact Seagate tech support & ask them how to tell which batch has the updated firmware. If you cant find the needed drives you will just have to FLASH the firmware. You will need to clean boot up with a DOS floppy that contains the flash utility & the firmware update, run the utility & your all done.

[gork]

I think i'm falling in love with you sonny, finally i have the answer to all of my prayers, and now i will go and order two Seagate 40 gig drives.:burn: :burn: :burn:

[Jon]

Like I said, I didn't remember exactly...I just knew there once was a latency problem with a certain controller.

If a firmware upgrade fixes it then they would be good to go. The Barracudas are excellent drives in the least.

Good luck with them.

[gork]

Thanks Jon...

btw, i changed my mind, im goin for one 80 gig drive now, and another in about a month, more gigs/$:D ...but more heat too:(

[himura-dono]

Originally posted by gork
Thanks Jon...

btw, i changed my mind, im goin for one 80 gig drive now, and another in about a month, more gigs/$:D ...but more heat too:(


it's all in how you distribute that heat tho.

i have enough space for up to 7 hdd's without tapping my 5.25 slots. my case has built in fan ports behind the front of the case and i've decided to place them accoringly to get some better circulation to go with the water cooling system i'm building.

flop |------|
hdd#1 |------|

empty |------|+ \
hdd#2 |------|{= fan - hdd cage 1 (three hdd capacity)
hdd#3 |------|+ /
empty |------|+ \
hdd#4 |------|{= fan - hdd cage 2
hdd#5 |------|+ /

i positioned and planned this way because i noticed that in the hard drive cages, that the air from the fan get's the center and bottom hdd the best. so i positioned it so that i only use thos spots.

check where the best circulation in your case is for the hdd placement. hdd's are more important to recieve better cooling and circulation then something like an optical drive. if you remember that, then u'll be ok anyway ^_^

[OldGuy]

Originally posted by gork

Sounds nice! Are the new drives shipped with this new firmware, or do i need to flash them or something? and how is this done?
If you are unfortunate enough to get one with the old firmware you'll have to send the drive to Seagate to get it replaced. They won't let you flash it your self. :(

You can get all the info on it here: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=402052&highlight=Seagate

[gork]

How do i find out weather i have the old or the new firmware?

[good_sense]

I think that Seagate has a utility to check the firmware #. It is on the Seagate site and is something like Enterprise testing or something. I use it for my scsi drives and I can change all kinds of settings like acoustic mode and stuff.

[OldGuy]

Originally posted by gork
How do i find out weather i have the old or the new firmware?
Again, You can get all the info on it here: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread...ghlight=Seagate