My two cents -

WD: (not the Essential Edition 2.0)
Disk model: WD5000AAJB (8MB cache, PATA?)
Format: FAT32
1 year warranty (extend for 2 additional years for an additional $25)
Ventilation via convection holes on top and rear and bottom (but no
fan)
On/Off switch with LED circle (in addition to Auto power management)
on front. Don't turn it off accidentally while writing
Additional LED on power supply
My test under Win XP-
Sequential Read: 29 MBytes/sec
Sequential Write: 18 MBytes/sec
Paid $130 (Staples, 9/2007)

Seagate:
Disk model: ST3500830AS (8MB cache, SATA?)
Format: NTFS
5 year warranty
Ventilation holes at the bottom?
Cool-looking LED bar that glows brighter during use
Mini-usb connector on drive end
My test under Win XP-
Sequential Read: 27 MBytes/sec
Sequential Write: 24 MBytes/sec
Paid $120 (Office Depot, 9/2007)



WD's DLGDIAG v1.07 reads the S.M.A.R.T. parameters from the Seagate
external USB drive!
I thought SMART of USB drives was not accessible?

Previously ngtestr@yahoo.com wrote:
That is a very bad idea, unless you are very careful with it, heat-wise.

Pretty standard for USB2.

Even worse...

Again, pretty standard.

It is not in any standardized way. But individual USB<->(S)ATA
bridges may well include non-portable vendor extensions to do it.
That means you are stuck with some specific software to read it.
No automatic monitoring, unless the specific software supports it.
No monitoring when the specific software breaks. For example, no
monitoring under Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, MacOS-X, etc.. With
a standardized interface you get all that.

Arno

Arno Wagner wrote in news:5m4dbuFb65sbU1@mid.individual.net
Because some babblebot never tires to babble the same stupidity around?

What exactly did you not understand in

" *WD's DLGDIAG* v1.07 reads the S.M.A.R.T. para-
meters from the *Seagate* external USB drive!"

Babblebot?


Or use perfectly standard passthrough extensions.

No different with device drivers that don't support S.M.A.R.T.
driver extensions.

No different with "the specific software" that depends on the drivers
for SMART driver extensions.

On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:46:41 -0700, ngtestr@yahoo.com put finger to
keyboard and composed:

Can you run USBview and tell us the vendor and product IDs of the
bridge chips?

See http://www.ftdichip.com/Resources/Utilities/usbview.zip

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

On Sep 28, 5:23 pm, Franc Zabkar <fzab...@iinternode.on.net> wrote:
WD:
idVendor: 0x1058
idProduct: 0x0901

ST:
idVendor: 0x0BC2
idProduct: 0x3000

On Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:32:33 -0700, ngtestr@yahoo.com put finger to
keyboard and composed:

Thanks. I was hoping that the IDs would identify the chips rather than
the manufacturer of the HD. Then again, maybe the chips are
manufactured by or for Seagate and WD, respectively.

The reason for my curiosity is that I have tried two different
enclosures, one using a JMicron JM20337 chip, the other a Prolific
PL3507, but neither works reliably with my Win98SE/SiS7001/7002 box.

FYI, here is a list of USB IDs:
http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

On Oct 1, 12:07 am, Franc Zabkar <fzab...@iinternode.on.net> wrote:
I believe the Seagate uses the Oxford Semiconductor chipset.

Folkert Rienstra wrote in news:46fdeae8$0$47101$892e7fe2@authen.yellow.readf reenews.net
But then 'again', "pretty standard" has a broad range with you, isn't it, bb.

Does it also read the temperatures and if so what are they (after a little workout)?

On Oct 3, 7:46 am, "Folkert Rienstra" <see_reply...@myweb.nl> wrote:
(Value, Threshold, Worst)

WD:
HDA Temp
Cold: (124, 0, 93)
Warm: (100, 0, 93)

Seagate:
HDA Temp
Cold: (26, 0, 59)
Warm: (42, 0, 59)
Airflow Temp
Cold: (74, 45, 41)
Warm: (58, 45, 41)


How do you interpret this?

Previously ngtestr@yahoo.com wrote:
No idea.

These are very likely Celsius in the first number.

Again, no idea.

Arno

ngtestr@yahoo.com wrote in
news:1191544635.456771.24350@o80g2000hse.googlegro ups.com
Well, apparently it can still get warmer, judging by that 93 number.

This doesn't make any sense for normalized values.
Does though if they are all RAW, but that would be a devia-
tion from the ATA specs. If so, the 59C number is quite high.
Btw, several Seagates appear to show these abnormal values
with other SMART reporting programs too.

What, WD shows more parameters for Seagate than for it's own?

This shows more sense from a normalized values standpoint if not
suspiciously low. And it shows to have tripped the threshold.

Not, without the RAW values.

Not even sure if the normalized values (lower is worse) can be trusted.
Do the other attributes make sense (for the Seagate)?

On Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:37:15 -0700, ngtestr@yahoo.com put finger to
keyboard and composed:

This may be a complete coincidence, but if you add the numbers in
columns 1 and 3 for the Seagate drive, you get ...

26 + 74 = 100
42 + 58 = 100
59 + 41 = 100

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.