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    Momentus XT with Win XP?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by cathy, Apr 26, 2011.

  1. cathy

    cathy Notebook Evangelist

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    Okay umm well I decided to buy a Momentus XT for my 3 year old MBP. I'm a long time Windows XP user though and I've stuck to it on my laptop even though my home and work computers use 7.

    Anyway I was wondering if I should be using Win 7 or Win XP with my new HDD. I'd prefer to use Win XP, but I've remember reading issues about XP and SSDs. I was wondering whether it makes a difference for the Momentus XT.

    Thanks
     
    cathy, Apr 26, 2011
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  2. Hungry Man

    Hungry Man Notebook Virtuoso

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    It probably wouldn't make much difference but I'd move to 7 anyway.
     
    Hungry Man, Apr 26, 2011
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  3. cathy

    cathy Notebook Evangelist

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    Hmm nah, I meant that I heard issues of SSDs with Windows XP, and the momentus XT is a hybrid HDD/SSD so I was worried. Thanks.
     
    cathy, Apr 26, 2011
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  4. TANWare

    TANWare Just This Side of Senile, I think. Super Moderator

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    there are no more issues with the XT than any other HDD. The SSD porition is used as a cache only so there are no TRIM worries or otherwise. My only concern may lie in the Hardware. XT's are known to have issues with some MBP's. I am not sure if that is a combo of the hardware and original OS software or just the hardware itself...........
     
    TANWare, Apr 26, 2011
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  5. davepermen

    davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    making sure the partitions are aligned could not be a bad thing. don't know if the momentus cares about alignment in their cache, but if it does, it would help.

    then again.. xp.. really? :p

    but it should work fine indeed.
     
    davepermen, Apr 26, 2011
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  6. davepermen

    davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    hint about horror stories: they're exactly that: horror stories. not statistics, not reliable and not trustable. there might be just one, two issues worldwide, but it's spread like fire on the web (would not be the first time). so don't bother with those much. if a manufacturer has to replace the drives, then listen up. because then, it's a widespread problem. other than that, disks can fail, all of them, so there's always a risk (=> backup ftw)
     
    davepermen, Apr 26, 2011
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  7. woofer00

    woofer00 Wanderer

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    I haven't heard any specific XT/XP issues, but I have for XT/MBP, mostly relating to trying to clone the existing drive to the XT, or trying to bring up a parallels image from the old drive. Bootcamp also seems to really dislike being ported onto the XT. If you do swap the drive, keep the "clean install the whole thing" option open.

    *edit*
    I do constantly hear that Seagate tries to stay on top of XT issues and continually releases firmware to address problems. I seem to hear fewer XT gripes the longer the drive is on the market, although as always, YMMV.
     
    woofer00, Apr 26, 2011
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  8. cathy

    cathy Notebook Evangelist

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    What's this about partition aligning? Care to explain more? =/

    Where can I find advanced format software for the momentus XT? Searched around a bit but I couldn't find much. :(

    Thanks.
     
    cathy, Apr 26, 2011
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  9. cathy

    cathy Notebook Evangelist

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    Yea I cloned my OS X partition over and I'm about to do the swap. Will do a clean install for Windows.
     
    cathy, Apr 26, 2011
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  10. TANWare

    TANWare Just This Side of Senile, I think. Super Moderator

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    Ok the XT, first available Hybrid drive hasn't even made it to the first year since market release? If you look at NewEgg consumer reviews the majority are 4 or more stars and most of the recent bad reviews are from MBP owners. This is why I've stated MBP's may be of concern..............
     
    TANWare, Apr 26, 2011
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  11. davepermen

    davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    the most simple way is if you have a win7 cd around (or vista). boot it up, create a partition (or two if you want, i just have one partition per disk). then install xp on it. there are other ways, but that's the most simple.

    the idea is this: the flash part is built on individual cells. imagine now having a partition where very file-junk is not exactly in one cell, but always a bit on two. the performance goes down to half (or worse, depending on ssd), as it always, for every file-write, it has to update two half-cells instead of one full-cell. if the partition is aligned, one file-chunk equals one cell, so there's no overlapping happening (yes, i grossly simplified, doesn't matter).
     
    davepermen, Apr 26, 2011
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  12. TANWare

    TANWare Just This Side of Senile, I think. Super Moderator

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    I thnk unless the XP install is SP1 or greater you have a NTFS limitation of 137 GB. I could be wrong here, do not have XP anymore..............
     
    TANWare, Apr 26, 2011
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  13. TANWare

    TANWare Just This Side of Senile, I think. Super Moderator

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    not sure what he has, have to give a shrug but mention it just in case it is something to look at if issues arise..............
     
    TANWare, Apr 26, 2011
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  14. cathy

    cathy Notebook Evangelist

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    Using XP SP3.

    So umm, does this sound as if this would work?

    Boot up using Win 7 64-bit DVD
    Format the drive
    Restart and boot up with Win XP DVD
    Install the drive without formatting
     
    cathy, Apr 26, 2011
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  15. davepermen

    davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    sounds fine (except for the "taking out win7 and putting in xp" of course :) joking).

    i'm not sure if a jumper setting is there on the momentus, i know it's there on some 3.5" 2tb drives i have. it would work in both cases, though..
     
    davepermen, Apr 26, 2011
    #15