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Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 6:45

Hi Guys

I need to know if its possible to change a WD3200BEPVT from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb.

Why is this?

I have some laptops (Fujitsu-Siemens) that give problems when working with drives on 3.0Gb.
The support of FS, says that I need to install 1.5Gb disks...

I have contacted WD, but until now, no answer.
The jumpers on the HDD doesn't do anything.
Any other trick?

Thanks

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 6:55

Hi pclab,
are you try with pro tools "ID utility" or "Sectors Capacity" utilities with pro tools?

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 7:09

Hi Splidit

If I depop heads, I'll loose capacity. I don't want that. I just want to reduce transfer speed.

@hhddrec

Sorry, didn't quite understand. What do you mean with pro tools?

Thanks

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 7:10

Spildit wrote:Depop heads on the WD !
Or you can try to set HPA.

I Think he ment transmitting speed...
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/det ... 391#jumper
Last edited by mr_spokk on April 4th, 2013, 7:14, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 7:11

What about if you set the max supported speed to Ultra ATA/100 or max ATA spec to ATA-6?

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 7:37

Hi MrSpock

I have checked that info and tried, but still having problems...

I saw somewhere (forgot the link... :evil: ) where with some WD app I could select another transfer speed...
But I can't find it...

@Cris

Where do you mean I should select? On HDD or on laptop?
On HDD, it's what I want to do. On the laptop, I don't have any options...

Thanks

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 7:52

Where do you mean I should select? On HDD or on laptop?


I'm not sure how to do it, but I thought hard drives normally listed the UDMA modes they support. I was thinking maybe you could disable the faster speeds. But I don't know how to do it or if it is possible.

Also the thing about changing to ATA-6, ignore that; I think you need ATA-7 for SATA.

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 8:36

Check DCO overlay

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 8:53

Some WD drives(FWs) lock the SATA speed and don't let it change through standard ATA commands. it's marketing, I guess.
If jumper doesn't help then you need different model

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 10:09

mr_spokk wrote:
Spildit wrote:Depop heads on the WD !
Or you can try to set HPA.

I Think he ment transmitting speed...
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/det ... 391#jumper



If you want reduce speed maybe "wd reduced power spinup" Option is for you as mr_spokk said

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 12:26

pclab wrote:I saw somewhere (forgot the link... :evil: ) where with some WD app I could select another transfer speed...
But I can't find it...
It's not what you need, but FWIW, WD has a utility, WDSSpeed, to enable Serial ATA Gen 3 (6 Gb/s) support on several desktop models if Gen 3 is currently disabled.

http://arnaud.worobel.free.fr/files/WdS ... .1-dos.zip
http://arnaud.worobel.free.fr/files/WDS ... .1-dos.zip

If you would like to reverse engineer it, be aware that it is packed with UPX.

UPX: the Ultimate Packer for eXecutables:
http://upx.sourceforge.net/

Otherwise, you could apply it to a supported model and dump the MODs before and after. That should tell you which MOD is affected, probably MOD 02.

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 12:31

Good advice fzabka. But linsk does not work.

new one:
http://files.hddguru.com/viewer_top.php ... %20Digital



FEATURES:
_________________
wdsspd Version 2.0.0.1 for Windows (32/64), Linux (32/64) and DOS


DESCRIPTION
- Console application to configure the Serial ATA speed negotiation.
- Allow auto speed negotiation (via firmware or hardware) or force it to 1.5G,
3.0G or 6.0G.
- Reports current Serial ATA speed negotiation setting.

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 12:36

I have tried that option and of the jumper and nothing....

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 12:40

fzabkar wrote:That should tell you which MOD is affected, probably MOD 02.

It's unlikely that any of modules on platters would be affected
Because SATA protocol requires establishing SATA connection even before a drive would spin up
I think SATA speed feature should be set in ROM modules

But as I said before some WD models have this feature locked in firmware

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

April 4th, 2013, 13:13

Doomer wrote:
fzabkar wrote:That should tell you which MOD is affected, probably MOD 02.

It's unlikely that any of modules on platters would be affected
Because SATA protocol requires establishing SATA connection even before a drive would spin up
I think SATA speed feature should be set in ROM modules

But as I said before some WD models have this feature locked in firmware

That makes sense. What about MOD 0D, at least in those models that support it? That's where the PUIS flag is stored.

BTW, there is another unrelated WD utiility (WDIDLE3) that writes the idle3 timer value to MOD 02. That's why I thought this MOD may have been the target.

Re: Change HDD from 3.0Gb to 1.5Gb

September 21st, 2013, 8:50

(Not sure if I should post in this thread or create a new one. My "high level" problem is very similar so decided to continue this thread, let me know if this is against the custom.)

My first post so just wanted to say hello and thank you all for sharing some of the knowledge HDD manufacturers would rather keep in their labs! Makes me really thankful that we have the web and some awesome people using it.

I recently purchased one of those Seagate 2.5" Hybrid drives, the ST1000LM014. It is able to run at SATA 3 (6 Gbit/s) speeds, but my notebook does not like that at all. According to my research, even though the chipset (MCP79) advertises its ability to communicate at 3 Gbit/s, it has troubles actually working at this speed with some drives. Choking them to 1.5 Gbit/s apparently solves all the problems (OS freeze, others).

So long story short, I'd like to force my ST1000LM014 (firmware SM15) to 1.5 Gbit/s. Some of the previous Seagate models, eg. the Momentus XT family, honoured jumper settings for this (two leftmost pins with HDD facing board-side-up) but this drive sadly does not :( It seems that I need to either invite it to honour the jumper ("SATA gen I 1.5Gb/s Jumper Supported"?) or somehow force it to only advertise support for 1.5 Gbit/s to the controller.

I'd be fine doing this via the serial interface or any other tool, but wanted to know if it can be done at all without low-level programming?
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