IBM 20 Gig to 30??

[Byock]

I heard there is a firmware update to make the IBM 20 gig HDD a 30 gig?? is this true?


Anyone heard anything??


Thanks,
The Chicken

[ayoub_ibrahim]

I wish!!

[Paulr]

It's a nice thought isn't it?
All IBM drives are actually 75GB units.
They just program the Firmware to only display the amount of storage space you paid for.
Then the Firmware crack is leaked and all IBM drives are suddenly 75GB.

Unfortunately no, thou has heard one of those great myths.
HD's are what they are, your 20GB will always be a 20GB.

[dZeus]

I've heard of patches increasing hdd capacity before. Just think of this:

If a manufacturer makes a hdd which is availble in configurations of lets say 30 and 40GB, and this specific model series utilizes 20GB-per-platter platters, than it could very well be that the actuator on the side of the platter that is not used by the 30GB can be enabled somehow, increasing your capacity to 40GB. In such a case the actuator must be in place of course to start with, but it would be quite costly for the manufacturer not to include it.

Not that this is the case with Byocks hdd (I have no idea), and I also have no clue how to adapt your hdd if it is

[SteveC]

Just like intel make loads of processors the same, but clock them down to fill out the marketplace. Get the right tools, and you can up the speed/capacity.

Some UDMA66 Maxtor HDDs can be flashed to become UDMA100.

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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[RAB]

Sorry Byock,
That one is an urban legend. Most current drives are made with 10 gig platters. That is, each disk (platter) inside the hard drive holds 10 gigs of data. The manufacturers just put in the appropriate number of platters for the size drive you want. 1 platter = 10 gigs; 2 platters = 20 gigs; 3 platters = 30 gigs; 4 platters = 40 gigs. So, sorry, you would have to add another platter to your drive to get more storage space, and that's not possible.

RAB

[xortam]

Crippling SW or HW to offer less expensive models has been done for decades. I used to work for a mainframe manufacturer in the late '70s that did this through firmware. I doubt it makes economic sense to do this in the PC storage industry, but there may come a time when it does offer a competitive advantage. How about field upgradable storage that simply requires the purchase of an additional license?

[Wombat]

RAB,
I generally agree with you, but IBM has 15, 20, and even 25 Gig platters. They're the king of high-density right now.

Just the same, supposing there were 2 15-gig platters in there, I would think that something wouldn't be right with the hardware, or it would have been a 30 gig drive.

[DentyCracker]

Wombat, no you are incorrect. There are documented cases where specific manufacturers have disabled a side of a platter. Some Seagate 15 and 20 GB are indeed identical except that a side of platter has been deactivated in firmware. I forgot where I saw this, but the rationale behind it was also given. If you search hard enough you will find this out.

[This message has been edited by DentyCracker (edited 01 October 2000).]

[cjolley]

I don't know whether it is possible or not,
but it is an interesting and plausable idea...

As an example:
The IBM Deskstar 75GXP 20 gig has
2 data disks (4 surfaces) but only 3 heads.

The questions then become: Does it realy
only have three heads or is the fourth
dissabled for marketing reasons.
And if the fourth head exists, can it be
activated?
Chuck

PS At one time many drives had "missing"
heads which were used to index cylinders,
and sectors for the working heads.



[This message has been edited by cjolley (edited 29 September 2000).]

[Sisyfos]

The IBM Deskstar 75GXP 20 gig is a weird one.
As the platter size is 15 gig, each side holds 7.5 gig.
That adds up to 22.5 gig?????
hmmmm...

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[cjolley]

That's about right -> 3 sides x 7.5 gig.
Some sectors are held back to replace sectors that go bad, some for low level formatting info etc..
Odd to think that "slack" space on a modern drive could be 250x as large as my first HD
chuck


[This message has been edited by cjolley (edited 29 September 2000).]

[Paulr]

But both of those examples are a little different.
CPU's - It's always been the case, the actual speed of the CPU is decided until after it has been made.
I used to work for a PC manufacturer.
If I remember correctly we used to see three basic models.
486 SX-25, DX-25 & DX-33.
All of these PC's had a 486 DX-33 CPU in, some were just under-clocked to certain levels.
It was just a lot cheaper to buy the DX-33's in.
HD's can be flashed from ATA-66 to ATA-100 buit only if it was built into the drive to start with and simply not enabled.
You can't for example with the use of a flash upgrade make an ATA-66 controller into an ATA-100.
As one of the other posts said, and as my original post said (Made in jest really, but when you come to think of it......)
It might be more cost effective to simply make lots of much bigger HD's and simply change the firmware so it only displays what you paid for.
However it does seem highly unlikely.

[Pace]

I didn't think there was a 20Gb 75GXP - I thought it was only 15-75Gb in 15Gb jumps?

Paul.

[RAB]

Ok, suppose a drive maker only used three out of four sides on two platters. Do they disable the fourth side in firmware or do they actually leave out the read/write head on that side of the platter? So, on second thought, if they just disabled the fourth side using firmware, then it would theoretically be possible to reactivate it. But I've never heard of this being done.

RAB

Chuck's link below says that there are only three heads. That would make increasing the size in bios unlikely unless you could somehow find a way to use the 2.5 gigs of unused space.



[This message has been edited by RAB (edited 01 October 2000).]