Is Active Protection System needed..

when the hdd it self already has a protection system?

My previous hitachi hdd died because I dropped my t61p. I didn't dropped it hard so I was a little stunned when I found out it had become totally useless... (could revive some data on it with a program, but still..)

So I got a new Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT installed in my t61p. Should I still install the APS, since the new hdd seems to have it's own protection system called: ShockGuard

It would be bad if APS and ShockGuard interfere with eachother...

 

APS works without installing any software, it is active irregardless of if you install the program. The program just displays the icon for if the HDD is running or stopped and settings.

 

From what I can gather from WDC's website shockguard only works when the drive is either spinning up, down or when it is turned off. It does not work when the drive is running, in which case the APS should help in such a scenario.

 

I don't think that's accurate. The APS driver must be installed (if using a clean install) for this to work. I'd install it as APS is unlikely to hurt.

 

Yes drivers need to be installed but i was just saying that the software is mostly a cosmetic thing.

 

If it already has a system like that, you can safely uninstall Active Protection, which will also uninstall the APS driver.

 

both of your comments above are incorrect.   the thinkpad on-board gyro moment sensor will not control a hard drive without installing the APS software.

the APS package includes setup.exe and an xml file for the automated installers like system update and thin installer.   it's impossible to install the APS service without installing the software since the software controls the service and the service controls the sensor (which is built onto the system planar).   in simple terms, no software = no service and no service = no APS.

the only way to have APS-like protection is to purchase a hard drive with an internal gyroscopic protection system.   both hitachi and seagate make these.   it's not recommended to use this type of drive in conjunction with APS unless the drive's internal sensor is disabled.

 

Yeah? Well, my T43's APS still evidently works as the service is disabled. When my APS works you can hear the HDD head stop or "park" even as the APS service is stopped or the software uninstalled when you suddenly move the laptop.

 

I think erik meant that if you don't install the software at all then you have no APS. If I understand you correctly, you install the software into your T43 and then disable it, correct? If that's the case, then the driver for APS is installed. You just don't have the GUI to see what's happening.

 

well....

why would you choose to not run it.... do you think its taking up resources or something? I'm a resource nazi but I don't think that running APS is going to even affect any of our laptops even the slightest bit. I even hide the icon from my taskbar so the only I know its active is when I shake the laptop while playing a movie and the movie skips.

what kind of discussion is this? Its sorta like: "Should I wear a helmet?" You can choose not to wear one but if hit your head, no one's gonna sympathize for you.

 

Thats how i determine it's working as well.

 

would anyone know how to get APS working on x86 version of Win7 RTM? After installing the drivers nothing shows up......

 

you need to install Thinkpad APS software to enable the accelerometer-sensor and the emergency-HDD-head park. it would leech very minute amount of resources (irrelevant). but if you got a HDD equiped with accelerometer then i would disable the APS, just to avoid any conflicts (if any, please confirm, if any).

however, i once read somewhere that the on-board HDD drop-sensor is not as effective as the one in the notebook's. so i would avoid getting HDD w/ drop-sensor if your notebook already got something like HDD APS.

 

APS works for hdds in the Ultrabay as well, right?

 

Dude just download the APS HDD protection drivers for Vista, i did and it works fine.

 

I thought the same, but have a look at your Start Menu, or in Control Panel, there it is Lenovo Airbag protection I think is called, only the tray icon is disabled you can enable it to show right there. Right now I'm just checking software compatibilities with 7, it seems AOL 9.1 does not properly work.

 

Yes. I have a WD Scorpio drive in my UltraBay (T400) and it works as advertised.

Actually, in some cases, it works a little too well on the high sensitivity setting - when I am on my exercise machine, I like to watch movies from disk...except that the vibrating/jostling from exercises sets of the sensor...what that means is that the playback pauses, as the disk head parks momentarily. So it's annoying. I have found if I stream the same data from another location, it works fine. Again, this is only for movies.

However, I am fully confident that if I drop the laptop, the drives/data will be protected. APS works as advertised.

Also, I see I can configure the sensitivity; I have not done this -it's set to the default (high). I'm pretty sure if I tuned it down, it would work fine.

But like 99% of people, I wouldn't know to go into the control panel and tweak APS if I ran into the above issue.

These really are well engineered laptops. Since the prices are competitive with Dell, HP, etc., and the performance (and more importantly service!) is much better with Lenovo, I'm going with them. HP used to be decent, but they have really fallen off, and service is terrible.

(sorry to get off on a rant; I just had a terrible HP service experience (even though it was escalated), while my Lenovo service experience was top shelf.