The Definitive Maxtor Silent Store Guide Rev. 2.0

[peaz]

"In an effort to reduce noise, Maxtor have been implementing their Silent Store technology for several years now. While Silent Store reduces the acoustic profile of Maxtor hard disks, it also slows them down!

The Definitive Maxtor Silent Store Guide Rev. 2.0 dissects this obscure Maxtor technology and reveals what it actually does. It will also show you how to reverse it! Check it out now and restore your hard disk's performance!"

Click here for the guide!

Please feel free to comment on the guide or post your questions here!

[rutabagamon]

I had similar results from turning the quiet mode off on my Maxtor L060j3 drive. I got approx 20% improvement in performance, as reported by Sisoft Sandra. And real-world performance seems similar, especially on a moderately fragmented drive where it has to seek more. (although admittedly this is much less objective) It was somewhat of a pain though, since the AMSET utility required me to disconnect the drive from the Promise PCI controller it's currently on and connect it directly to the motherboard IDE controller.
The noise isn't even noticeable over the sound of the extra fans I have installed.
ru

[Petedwitt]

Hi,
My Maxtor 6YO80LO has an Access Time of 14,7 Milliseconds even after turning off Acoustic Management or setting it to /fast.HD Tach says:Read Speed-maximum 50973.0 kps,minimum 29327.0 kps,average 42127.1kps.Random Access Time 14,7 Milliseconds.Whats wrong here that my HD has such a bad access time?.Is there anything I can do to improve it?

Thanks,
PETE

[Chai]

Maybe you should try re-running the HDTach. I need re-run it 3 times to get consistent results.

[Adrian Wong]

Hello Petedwitt,

First of all, did AMSET specifically say it supports your hard disk when you ran it? The problem with AMSET is that Maxtor only states that it supports certain hard disk families. Other hard disk families are almost sure to be using Silent Store as well but whether they can be configured is another matter altogether.

Try running AMSET without any commands. See what's the state of the acoustic management. See if it actually does anything. It's possible that your hard disk may not support any switching of the acoustic management mode (although I cannot confirm this). In that case, your hard disk will still be using the Quiet mode even if you have turned it off or to Fast mode.

If AMSET supports your hard disk, perhaps you should try retesting it with WinBench 99 version 2.0.

[Petedwitt]

Hi,
Yes,my Harddrive supports it,changed couple of times the settings and it showed each time the right setting which i adjusted,ran HD Tach a couple of times also and it reads 14,3 to 14,9 Access Time,the same in SoftSandra.Harddrive has no faults,I have run the Maxtor Drive test and other Software.Is there maybe a setting in WinXP to adjust something?.Thanks for the help.

PETE

[Adrian Wong]

Hmm... Then I recommend you try WinBench 99 Version 2.0. Chai just ran some benchmarks. I think HDTach's a bit off. I'm going to be updating the guide with WinBench 99 results. It's more accurate.

[ichpen]

Thought I'd jump in here.

Please bear in mind that there are other tools that can regulate Accoustic Management successfully.

I've successfully switched off AAM on my Maxtor Drives using any of the IBM Drive Fitness Tools or IBM Management tools.

The bonus is that they will treat your RAID card as a IDE controller so you won't have to unplug all your drives.

I have successfully changed AAM on 3 Maxtor drives (a DM8+ and 2 DM+ 60) using the IBM tools. Also [IBM tools] drive diagnostics tend to be a lot quicker than the Maxtor equivalent (on Maxtor drives).

[phsstpok]

I first learned about Acoustic Managerment two years ago while I was trying to discover why my D540X was performing so poorly. I wasn't pleased to learn that Quiet Mode was enabled by default.

A year later (one year ago) I picked up a DiamondMax Plus 40 GB (the one without fluid bearings). First thing I did was check the AM status. That drive had AM disabled by default.

I'm disappointed that Maxtor once again is shipping the drives with AM ( SilentStore) set to Quiet Mode.

[Adrian Wong]

Hello ichpen,

When I first wrote the guide, I think Maxtor's AMSET was the only one that could do it. I might be wrong though. When did you start using the IBM tools?

BTW, they sound a lot smarter than Maxtor's AMSET!


Hello phsstpok,

Hmm... I had a DiamondMax Plus 40 too. I had AM enabled. And when our team basically runs on Maxtor drives. And all of them had AM enabled out of the box. They should really ship the drives with AM disabled and post the utility more prominently on their website.