Momentus XT 500GB

Just ordered it from newegg since they have it for 129.99 and free shipping.

Is it a good choice to have multiple partitions on this drive?

This drive is pretty much plug and play for M11x R2's correct?

Thanks.

 

Really not much point to multiple partitions other than from an organizational point of view.

 

Only reason I'm thinking about extra partition is to have back ups on downloaded files incase I have to format the OS partition.

 

I always have a separate partition to keep downloaded files/drivers and music on so I don't have to make backups each time I want to reformat

I'd say do it but I don't know a great deal about hybrid drives, I dunno if it'll affect it

 

Use and external 1TB to keep backups? I have mine as one partition. Definitely speeds up the computer and any games/programs you use frequently will load faster.

Takes about ~5 times for the drive to get accustomed to which programs you use the most.

 

Bah I guess most XT owners only have 1 partition lol.

I do have back up external hard drive, but it's networked, not USB, so it still does take time to transfer files, which I'm trying to avoid if I can.

 

i heard this hard drive reduces battery life a bit compared to standard hard drives

 

Yeap, I read it too, bit I think speed(especially on boot time), size, and the price easily out weighs the bad, so I decided to get one.

My stock 160GB is just too horrible to live with x).

 

oh man and the stock 160gb is the 5400rpm model

I have the 320gig 7200rpm one and it does what I need fine. I was going to put my SSD in it but I put it in my desktop instead

 

i have a 500gb momentus xt and i have it in 2 partition for OS and my personal crap. I prefer it that way since i like to do clean installs every so often when my systems starts to run like crap and i do not have to loose all my personal documents and steam collection.

 

Just throw the OEM drive into an external SATA enclosure or dock that has some sort of USB2/3 or eSATA connector (for future) and it becomes your spare hard drive to storing download and install OS.

 

I certainly haven't noticed that it adversely impacts battery life. I had the stock 5400rpm drive in mine for about a month.

 

I don't see it adversely affecting your drive at all.
The partitioning that is. It won't touch the SSD, the SSD part of the drive is controlled BY the drive IIRC. Not windows in anyway. Any info on the SSD part of the drive is just a duplicate of what's on the HDD, so if there is a call for that part is just scoops it from the SSD instead of the HDD.
Partition away my friend, it truly is the way to do things. JBOD is nice with storage arrays, but having an OS partition makes regular formats a breeze with little to nothing to worry about getting mistakenly... lost.

 

I also have an XT, and have not seen any noticeable difference in battery life. It is much faster than the stock 7200 drive

 

I was thinking about getting one of these right away and just purchasing a m11x with a 160gb hd to start with. How much of a hassle would it be to transfer all of the data on the 160gb hd to the new one?

 

Very easy to clone. I used the trial version of Acronis TrueImage. There are quite a few posts here already detailing other tools and methods of cloning a drive.

 

the momentus xt is a great HDD. I'm using one in my R2 now.

 

Engadget just did a review: =D

Seagate hybrid hard drive review -- Engadget

 

I purchased this a few days ago for $130+$6 shipping too. I checked today and it looks like they added the CMS transfer kit as a free gift though, which I missed out on.

But anyways, hopefully it performs great and is problem free since there are a lot of mixed reviews on newegg about it.

 

The first one I received vibrated so badly that my hands would get numb after about 5 minutes of palm rest. Second one is like any other 7200rpm drive.

 

I probably missed out on the CMS transfer kit as well. I dont see it on my order confirmation. I really wasn't even paying attention other than the129.99 price lol.

 

I just got mine today. I kinda screwed up when I backed up my original HDD. I used Acronis but didn't have an external enclosure so I backed it up to my server and forgot the Boot Partition blah blah blah so Clean install it is lol.

 

So, I made a Windows 7 Restore right after I did a clean install on my current HDD. Could I just use that to install Windows 7 on the new HDD? I only have Windows 7 upgrade so I think I'd have problems doing a fresh install on a blank HDD.

Haha..yeah I ordered it on Thursday night and they didn't have that offer. Kinda sucks. I'm going to have to move all the crap on my 320 gb external to the momentus, then plug in the old HDD and move everything to the 320 gb, then repeat. Gonna be a major PITA.

How do you like the 2nd one so far? Noticeable upgrade to your previous HDD?

 

wow I got the drive in one day from ordering.

Anyways, here's a firmware update that might interest you guys.

Momentus XT Firmware Update

Make sure to read thru and I'm not responsible for mis haps!! x)

 

damn. im in the same boat as you guys. I ordered it before they offered the transfer kit. I'm tempted to call them and try to get them to send me one considering the $3000+ business I've done with them...

I know they have done reviews of the momentus xt, but does anyone have links to any benchmarks of an xt inside an m11x?
I'm interested in knowing how well the xt and the ulv i7 work in tandem...

 

When I installed mine, I used Acronis to duplicate the partitions from the stock 160gb drive to the Momentus. Windows 7 would not boot. BSOD because for some reason it didn't understand something with the drive or drive controller. I had this same problem with Windows 7 as a physical machine and a virtual machine in VMWare. I ended up putting the original disk back in and making a backup of the recovery image and then ran it on the new drive.

Don't feel bad about forgetting that boot partition, you may have had to install again anyway.

 

Has anyone here actually used the CMS transfer kit before? I got my Momentus in yesterday and my M11x R2 should be here either today or tomorrow and I'm debating between a fresh install or just copying everything over using the kit. Any insight would be much appreciated!

 

Fresh install it anyways. Can't go wrong w/ it. It's a good idea to have about 100GB separate partition for downloaded stuff anyways.

 

Those of you using Acronis, make sure you check your partition alignment after imaging. It should read 1048576 offset for your first partition, not 63 bytes. Acronis is notorious for ruining partition alignment which can greatly reduce performance.

 

Could you expand on this a bit? Or provide a link to more detailed information?

EDIT: Nevermind. I'll find it.

 

I use CloneZilla for partition backup with my M11x-R1 and never had any issues...

 

Acronis has good stuff

 

Yeah, no problems with the cloning I did with True Image 2010. My offset is not set to 63. It's my understanding that the offset needs to be a multiple of 128, which mine is.

 

Good deal going on at Newegg.com

$20 bucks off the regular price.

Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus XT ST95005620AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s with NCQ Solid State Hybrid Drive -Bare Drive

 

What thing do I need before cloning my harddisk? I mean an unused DVD or external storage?
Do I have to install win 7 before cloning to my momentus XT?
Sorry I'm new to this :x

 

First thing to check is if the new drive is larger than smaller than the old one. If newer, you'll have to shrink the Windows partition which is a bit of a pain to be frank... If larger, then just fire on!

1. Get hold of cloning software - most guys here used Acronis, but I personally like Paragon... it's a personal thing!
2. Stick an image of the old drive onto an external hard drive if it's a smallish image.
3. Create the recovery software to USB stick or CD, and make sure the machine is set to boot from that.
4. Replace the hard drive with new shiny kit.
5. Boot from recovery software, with external USB drive plugged in where the image is residing.
6. Follow the prompts to copy the image onto the new internal drive... this should be all that is needed to make it work. Remember to expand the partition to use the available space afterwards.

Hope that helps - it's high level but just holler if you need more detailed instructions. There are a lot of really good posts here to walk you through it, or <generic internet search engine> will always help you!

Good luck!

PS. Word of note for everyone else: never noticed the Momentus take battery life away from my machine, but it is quicker than stock drives, although mine has a random, rare, beep every now and again!

 

Yep, battery life does take a hit with the XT. I lost about 45 minutes.

 

Ouch! Significant...

Mine is in my Asus gaming laptop, so I don't really do much on battery, and the theoretical battery time seemed to be in the same ballpark (under 2 hours!). To be fair, I also changed the CPU from Merom to Penryn at the same time so it would have altered the draw on the battery too.

I put an SSD on another ultraportable and it decreased the battery life as well. I think it might be because it sits playing music when on, so the music player would force the drive to be constantly seeking (or every 3 mins at the end of a song and it shuffles) so the SSD would always be at the high drain state rather than the HDD which would just spin up and the start and spin constantly which would be more efficient in this usage state.

 

I also have this HD, you can/could also get it when you ordered your M11X. The size is pretty good for the price.

 

Question on this: I have firmware SD24. Is there anything that's been changed on SD25? Is there any performance gain perhaps?