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Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB

Nathan Edwards — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:00:00 -0600

We were pumped when we heard that Seagate had broken through the terabyte barrier with its 1.5TB Barracuda drive—it’s not only the biggest consumer drive available, but also represents the largest jump in capacity we’ve seen. We typically expect capacity increases to be accompanied by performance decreases, but this drive is quick on its feet despite its gargantuan size.

Thanks to perpendicular recording, the Barracuda manages to pack 1.5TB of capacity onto four 375GB platters on a 7,200rpm spindle with a 32MB cache, which allows it to keep pace with four-platter 1TB drives like the terabyte Barracuda and the WD Caviar Black.

We ran our standard benchmark suite–HD Tach 3.0.1.0, PCMark Vantage, and H2benchw—on the Barracuda and compared it to a 1TB WD Caviar Black (http://tinyurl.com/63wc62). The Caviar trumped the Barracuda in both HD Tach and H2benchw’s random-access tests—which makes sense, given that it has less data per platter to trawl through—but the Barracuda swept the field in average read and write speeds. Indeed, HD Tach reported average read speeds of 104.4MB/s and write speeds of 103.8MB/s, besting the Caviar by 16 percent and 30 percent, respectively. The Caviar squeaked past the Barracuda in all but two PCMark Vantage tests,

Seagate claims a sustained data rate of 120MB/s. H2benchw found that although the Barracuda’s max sustained read and write speeds both topped 125MB/s, its average sustained reads and writes were 98MB/s—still 15 percent faster than the Caviar.

Just for kicks, we tested how the Barracuda compared to Western Digital’s screaming-fast Velociraptor in HD Tach. No big shock there: The Velociraptor’s 249MB/s burst and 7.1ms random-access time leave Seagate in the dust. But the Velociraptor’s average read speed is only 4MB/s faster than the Seagate’s, and its write speed is actually slower.

The Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB runs neck and neck with the fastest terabyte drives we’ve tested. And it is the biggest consumer drive on the market. With OEM versions available on NewEgg for about $180, you can have a terabyte and a half for less than two Franklins. That’s kick ass.

Web Addendum: A small but vocal number of users of the Barracuda 7200.11 line, of which this drive is a part, have been suffering from failures due to firmware issues. See our coverage here and here. At the time this review was written, these issues had not come out, and neither our review units nor the several owned by our editors have had any issues.

Getting the Lowdown on Seagate and Maxtor Firmware Fixes

Mark Edward Soper — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:24:40 -0600

As our own Paul Lilly's been telling us recently, many Seagate hard disks have been afflicted by firmware woes. Unfortunately, Seagate's first attempt to fix the problem wound up turning working drives into high-tech bricks.

As it turns out, both Seagate and Maxtor-brand SATA drives can be affected by firmware problems. So, how can you find out exactly which models may be on the naughty list and when Seagate has a firmware fix that's ready for prime time? Here's how.

To determine if you have a drive that's affected, you need to know the drive's model number, firmware revision, and serial number. Seagate offers the free Drive Detect utility, which displays this information.

You can also determine the drive's model number by opening Device Manager in Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, and expanding the Disk Drives category. To view the firmware revision, open the Details tab (if present) and select Hardware IDs from the pull-down menu. The firmware revision is listed thus (Windows 7 Beta shown, Windows XP and Vista are similar):

The serial number is listed on the drive's faceplace, or you can find it on the original box.

Once you know this information, open Seagate KB article 207931 and look up your drive. The following families of drives are affected:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA(160GB, 320GB, 500GB, 640GB, 750GB, 1TB, 1.5TB capacities)
Seagate Barracuda ES.2 SATA (250GB, 500GB, 750GB, 1TB)
Maxtor DiamondMax 22 SATA (160GB, 320GB, 500GB, 750GB, 1TB capacities)

See the KB article for specific model numbers.

To find out which firmware revisions need to be updated, and to be notified when a working update is available, click the link for your drive family. When recommended firmware is available, the download link will be posted. As an alternative to revisiting the drive family's page until the firmware update is posted, click the Subscribe icon and enter your email address. Seagate will send you an email when the page is updated.

In the meantime, follow the links on Paul Lilly's report on firmware problems to see how other users are dealing with the problem - and, back up your drives!

Seagate Barracuda Drives Failing at an Alarming Rate. Are You Affected?

Paul Lilly — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:15:10 -0600

According to news site The Register, Seagate's 1TB Barracuda hard drives are giving up the ghost "at an alarming rate." Users all across the globe have started complaining of lockups, non-detection in the BIOS, 0GB reported disc size, and other ailments, as reported by The Register and forum threads like the one at MSFN (Microsoft Software Forum Network).

If true, the problem appears to affect Barracuda 7200.11 drives made in Thailand (ST3100034AS) with firmware SD15. Users claim the reported failures are higher than what would be considered normal for hard drives, and adding insult to injury, some users are complaining of deleted and edited posts in an 18+ page support thread on Seagate's own forum.

And for you conspiracy theorists out there, while no Seagate Knowledge Base article yet exists on this specific topic, the company did recently reduce its bare drive warranty period from 5 to 3 years. For you non-conspiracy theorists, that means your drive is still under warranty.

Update 1/16/09 - Seagate Responds

Seagate sent us an update regarding the failures and what steps potentially affected users can take to both resolve the issue and recover data. Full statement below:

Seagate has isolated a potential firmware issue in certain products, including some Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives and related drive families based on this product platform, manufactured through December 2008. In some circumstances, the data on the hard drives may become inaccessible to the user when the host system is powered on*.

As part of our commitment to customer satisfaction, we are offering a free firmware upgrade to those with affected products. To determine whether your product is affected, please visit the Seagate Support web site at http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931.

Support is also available through Seagate's call center: 1-800-SEAGATE (1 800 732-4283)

Customers can expedite assistance by sending an email to Seagate (discsupport@seagate.com). Please include the following disk drive information: model number, serial number and current firmware revision. We will respond, promptly, to your email request with appropriate instructions. There is no data loss associated with this issue, and the data still resides on the drive. But if you are unable to access your data due to this issue, Seagate will provide free data recovery services. Seagate will work with you to expedite a remedy to minimize any disruption to you or your business.

For a list of international telephone numbers to Seagate Support and alternative methods of contact, please access http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/contact_us/

*There is no safety issue with these products.

Seagate Stores More in Less Space with New 1TB Drive

Mark Edward Soper — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:28:40 -0600

One-Terabyte drives are no longer unusual, but until now, drive vendors have needed three or more platters to hit the magic 1TB goal. Not any more.

Seagate is now shipping the first 1TB hard disk to get the job done with just two platters: the Barracuda 7200.12. It jams 320 Gigabits of storage per square inch into each platter to achieve its 500GB per platter capacity. It uses a 3Gbps SATA interface and a 32MB cache to move your data around.

The drive is also available in 750GB (32MB cache) and 500GB (16MB cache) capacities. No word on official pricing yet on the 1TB big guy, but some websites are showing the 500GB model selling for about the same price as its predecessor, the Barracuda 7200.11 (32MB cache).

What do you think about getting the same capacity with fewer platters? Will the shorter warranty period for Seagate's new OEM drives prevent you from upgrading? Hit Comment and sound off.

Seagate Launches Industry-First 1.5TB Desktop Drive, Destroys Storage Worldstone

David Murphy — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:34:22 -0500

Put a feather in Seagate's cap. The storage titan has sprinted to the finish line and dredge up an exclusive: the world's first 1.5-terabyte hard drive. The 7,200-RPM drive uses a mere four platters to achieve its huge capacity point -- that's 375GB per platter of areal density. Beefy.

Seagate is claming a sustained data rate of 120 MB/s for its drive, which might very well be enough to place this little guy above Samsung's 333GB-per-platter HD103UJ drive. Other than that, the bulging Barracuda seems similar to every other high-capacity drive on the market: expect a 3 Gb/s SATA interface, an typical 32MB of cache, and a 7,200 RPM. The Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB drive will hit store shelves in August. Check out the full release below:

SEAGATE POWERS NEXT GENERATION OF COMPUTING WITH THREE NEW HARD DRIVES, INCLUDING WORLD’S FIRST 1.5-TERABYTE DESKTOP PC AND HALF-TERABYTE NOTEBOOK PC HARD DRIVES

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — July 10, 2008 — Seagate (NYSE:STX) today unveiled the industry’s first 1.5-terabyte desktop and half-terabyte notebook hard drives to meet explosive worldwide demand for digital-content storage in home and business environments.

The debut of the Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB, the eleventh generation of Seagate’s flagship drive for desktop PCs, marks the single largest capacity hard drive jump in the more than half-century history of hard drives – a half-terabyte increase from the previous highest capacity of 1TB, thanks to the capacity-boosting power of perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology.

The Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive combines proven PMR technology, components and expert manufacturing to provide 1.5TB of reliable storage for mainstream desktop computers, workstations, desktop RAID, gaming and high-end PCs, and USB/FireWire/eSATA external storage.

Seagate’s new 2.5-inch half-terabyte 5400- and 7200-rpm drives – Momentus 5400.6 and Momentus 7200.4 – deliver the best combination of capacity, mobility and durability for mainstream and high-performance notebook computers, external storage solutions, PCs and industrial applications requiring small form factor.

Highlighting the global growth of digital content, Seagate expects to ship its two billionth hard drive within the next five years. Earlier this year Seagate shipped its one billionth hard drive since the company’s inception nearly 30 years ago.

“Organizations and consumers of all kinds worldwide continue to create, share and consume digital content at levels never before seen, giving rise to new markets, new applications and demand for desktop and
notebook computers with unprecedented storage capacity, performance and reliability,” said Michael Wingert, Seagate executive vice president and general manager, Personal Compute Business. “Seagate is committed to powering the next generation of computing today with the planet’s fastest, highest-capacity and most reliable storage solutions.”

Momentus 5400.6 and Momentus 7200.4 hard drives are the fourth generation of Seagate’s laptop family to use PMR. The Momentus 5400.6, a 5400-rpm drive, combines a powerful Serial ATA 3Gb/second interface and capacities ranging from 120GB to 500GB with an 8MB cache.

The Momentus 7200.4 hard drive, with its 7200-rpm spin speed and a Serial ATA 3GB/second interface, delivers true desktop performance. The power-efficient 7200-rpm drive maximizes battery life and comes in capacities ranging from 250GB to 500GB with a 16MB cache.

Both Momentus drives are built tough enough to withstand up to 1,000 Gs of non-operating shock and 350 Gs of operating shock to protect drive data, making the drives ideal for systems that are subject to rough handling or high levels of vibration. For added robustness in mobile environments, the Momentus 5400.6 and 7200.4 are offered with G-Force Protection, a free-fall sensor technology that helps prevent drive damage and data loss upon impact if a laptop PC is dropped. The sensor works by detecting any changes in acceleration equal to the force of gravity and parks the heads off the disc to prevent contact with the platter in a free fall of as little as 8 inches and within 3/10ths of a second.

Seagate’s new Momentus drives are lean on power consumption, allowing notebook users to work longer between battery charges, and are virtually inaudible thanks to Seagate’s innovative SoftSonic fluid-dynamic bearing motors and QuietStep ramp load technology.

The Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive combines the capacity and speed required for today’s most demanding desktop PC applications. The drive packs 1.5TB on just four platters and its fast Serial ATA 3Gb/second interface delivers an industry-leading sustained data rate of up to 120MB/second for fast boot, application startup and file access. The 3.5-inch drive is also offered in capacities of 1TB, 750GB, 640GB, 500GB, 320GB and 160GB with cache options of 32MB and 16MB.

All Momentus and Barracuda drives are backed by Seagate’s leading five-year warranty. You can find photos of these three new drives, and other Seagate products, at: http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/news_room/photos/

Availability
Shipments of the Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB are set to begin August 2008. Momentus 5400.6 and 7200.4 hard drives are to begin shipping in Q4 calendar 2008.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11

David Murphy — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 15:25:08 -0600

With new teams entering the terabyte storage market, it was only a matter of time before one smacked down the great Hitachi 7K1000 1TB drive. That distinction goes to Seagate’s 1TB Barracuda 7200.11 drive.

The Barracuda and Western Digital’s Caviar GP are virtually identical in terms of features: same 32MB cache, same 7,200rpm rotation speed, same 512 bytes per sector. The Barracuda and Caviar GP drives also use four platters (250GB apiece) to hit their 1TB capacities, unlike Hitachi’s 7K1000, which uses five platters. This difference in areal density proves to be a fatal flaw for Hitachi’s drive, and the Caviar GP’s speeds are constrained by its focus on energy savings.

The result? Seagate’s 7200.11 terabyte drive is the fastest we’ve yet tested in the Lab, hands down. It doesn’t come with any additional features—no encryption, no power-savings, no backup—just speed. Although we’d welcome the others, speed is our primary concern.

Razer Barracuda AC-1

Gordon Mah Ung — Wed, 09 May 2007 18:42:11 -0500

As we said with the Auzentech, we’re impressed when companies go above and beyond reference designs for products. Razer’s Barracuda AC-1 is such a product. Though it uses the same C-Media Oxygen HD chip as the X-Meridian, you wouldn’t think the two cards were related.

The AC-1 gives you a proprietary DVI-like connector that you can directly connect to the Razer’s HP-1 headset (or your standard speakers using the included dongle). And like the X-Meridian, the AC-1 features dual optical ports, but this card is definitely intended for gaming. And that’s where it gets interesting. The CMI8788 isn’t a DSP, like the X-Fi, it’s more of a super I/O chip that passes data from the PCI bus to the various components on the AC-1 at a very efficient clip.

Most of the filtering for 3D effects, including Dolby and other processor-intensive chores, is done on the computer’s CPU. In FEAR, for example, the X-Fi’s DSP gives it about a 10 percent frame-rate advantage over the other cards in analog mode. (Dolby Digital encoding adds even more overhead to the Razer card, but the X-Fi is incapable of real-time DD5.1 encoding.)

We’ve been wondering if our stance against host-based audio was outdated in the age of multicore CPUs, but a 10 percent hit is still painful—it’s like dropping the CPU down a rung or two.

Of course, the DSP doesn’t always work against the AC-1. In 3DMark03, which uses simpler audio routines, the AC-1 performs the same as or better than the X-Fi. Performance could also improve if the drivers for the AC-1 were multithreaded.

In gaming fidelity, the AC-1 fared well in our tests, with one exception. In Battlefield 2, we noticed dropouts in audio. The same happened with the X-Meridian, so we suspect it’s a problem with the chipset or its drivers that is induced by the tremendous amount of audio BF2 throws at you.

Where does that leave the AC-1? At $200, it’s pretty expensive. In fact, the AC-1 costs more than the X-Fi with its fancy schmancy (and so far useless) onboard X-RAM. It doesn’t help that the AC-1 lacks OpenAL support and sounds inferior to the Creative card in many of the games we tested.