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Seagate FreeAgent Pro - eSATA too slow there's something wrong with eSATA implementation

#1 Guest_888_*

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Posted 10 October 2007 - 08:36 AM

Something is wrong with Seagate FreeAgent Pro external drive's eSATA performance. Not depending on drive capacity, just all of the models in this "Pro" series suffering that... Still, not sure if this concerns the production of some batches, some months or totally all...

At first the idea started from our local customers' complaints. Then I googled in 'net and found numerous similar problems arised in customer reviews on this product.

The major complaint is that using eSATA interface in these models doesn't give much faster transfer speeds than USB, for some customers it has been even lower... Usually the HDtach tests indicate STR around 30 MB/s only, in better cases up to 40 MB/s (and the very best rare result I digged out was maximum 60 MB/s). At the same time similar tests for LaCie and WD (models with eSATA) resulted usually twice better, even up to 80 MB/s (which is already the limit of internal HDD's STR itself).

The second complaint about this FreeAgent Pro is its extremely slow access times. All tests I was able to gather here and there indicated the access time in the range from 21 to 29 ms! At the same time the same tests for LaCie and WD models resulted in normal 13 to 14 ms access time.

The reason for such an anomalies is unknown yet... There may be something wrong with eSATA interface but as well with the external drive's combo firmware too. But I have no idea why the access(seek) can be soooo slow... It's even slower than for the drive with AAM on...

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#2 User is offline   Telstar The Sorcerer Icon

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Posted 10 October 2007 - 05:24 PM

I have a sata/usb combo enclosure fitted with a seagate drive and its performance are like the internal disk i have.

I didnt do specific tests but i transfer large files from my scsi array sometimes.
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#3 User is offline   student Icon

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Posted 11 October 2007 - 12:44 PM

Wow, I just tested my Seagate FreeAgent Pro after reading this thread. I can't get above 45MB/s using an eSATA connection and the graph is all over the place... not the usual smooth downward curve of my other hard drives. Does anyone know of a solution? Has this been acknowledged by Seagate?

#4 User is offline   Telstar The Sorcerer Icon

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Posted 11 October 2007 - 01:07 PM

You made me curious and so I tested my disk: its all fine :D

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#5 User is offline   student Icon

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Posted 11 October 2007 - 01:18 PM

I just called Seagate support and they suggested it could be the SATA > eSATA external faceplate / adaptor I am using. Sounds reasonable. I'm gonna try a direct motherboard to drive connection with a SATA > eSATA cable. If that shows low transfer rates its got to be the Hard Disk...

No mention of a "yes this is an endemic problem with FreeAgent Pro drives", you can RMA it if you want...

#6 Guest_888_*

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Posted 12 October 2007 - 08:05 AM

Some references pointing to this problem:

http://www.extremete...,2173845,00.asp
(look at the all graphs there - Seagate is in low bottom always)

http://techreport.co...pic.php?t=49310
("The esata results for the WD are: access =13.7ms / avg read= 52.9MBs")
("The Seagate comes in at: access=21.2ms / avg read= 32.7MBs")

http://ohgizmo.com/2...ts-not-to-like/
("max 39.5 MB/s")

http://www.amazon.co...iews/B000ND93DE
("HD Tach reports absurdly slow stats--eSATA, Firewire --no significant difference")

http://forums.cnet.c...ssageID=2483661
("my eSATA is transferring slower than USB??")

http://www.tomshardw...ted/page12.html
(STR is better but not still anything good here but access time still out of the all range)

...and there's more similar results available...

#7 Guest_888_*

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Posted 12 October 2007 - 08:10 AM

View PostTelstar The Sorcerer, on Oct 11 2007, 01:24 AM, said:

I have a sata/usb combo enclosure fitted with a seagate drive and its performance are like the internal disk i have.

Do you have a Seagate internal drive put in other manufacturer's eSATA/USB combo box?
Or still that Seagate's own-assembled box "FreeAgent Pro"?

#8 User is offline   Telstar The Sorcerer Icon

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Posted 12 October 2007 - 08:22 AM

View Post888, on Oct 12 2007, 03:10 PM, said:

View PostTelstar The Sorcerer, on Oct 11 2007, 01:24 AM, said:

I have a sata/usb combo enclosure fitted with a seagate drive and its performance are like the internal disk i have.

Do you have a Seagate internal drive put in other manufacturer's eSATA/USB combo box?
Or still that Seagate's own-assembled box "FreeAgent Pro"?


The enclosure is made in china :D. It's aluminium with passive cooling.

I bought it on ebay UK and the seller pre-fitted it with a 750gb seagate (the model w/ 16mb cache). Money well spent.
| Xeon E3110 @4GHZ | Asus Rampage Formula | 2x 2GB G.Skill pc-8500 | Asus 280 GTX
| LSI Megaraid 320-E 128MB cache w/ battery | 4x Fujutsu MAU 15k 143 GB (2x raid0 arrays)
| X-Fi Xtreme Gamer | Steelseries Ikari laser | Samsung 2693HM 25,5" LCD

#9 Guest_888_*

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Posted 12 October 2007 - 08:27 AM

View PostTelstar The Sorcerer, on Oct 12 2007, 04:22 PM, said:

View Post888, on Oct 12 2007, 03:10 PM, said:

View PostTelstar The Sorcerer, on Oct 11 2007, 01:24 AM, said:

I have a sata/usb combo enclosure fitted with a seagate drive and its performance are like the internal disk i have.

Do you have a Seagate internal drive put in other manufacturer's eSATA/USB combo box?
Or still that Seagate's own-assembled box "FreeAgent Pro"?

The enclosure is made in china :D. It's aluminium with passive cooling.
I bought it on ebay UK and the seller pre-fitted it with a 750gb seagate (the model w/ 16mb cache). Money well spent.

So, then it's another thing, not just on topic here...

The problem discussed here is sure located somewhere in bridge circuitry of just Seagate FreeAgent Pro enclosures, not in Seagate HDDs generally.

#10 Guest_888_*

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Posted 12 October 2007 - 08:39 AM

View Poststudent, on Oct 11 2007, 09:18 PM, said:

I'm gonna try a direct motherboard to drive connection with a SATA > eSATA cable. If that shows low transfer rates its got to be the Hard Disk...

One of my customers already tried this too, connecting the FreeAgent Pro into motherboard's SATA port using SATA-to-eSATA cable.

As a result he got +10 MB/s more speed then but that's still very slow for SATA connection (around 50 MB/s max for a 80 MB/s max HDD). Yes true, something depends on eSATA (or SATA) controllers in computer-side but anyway I haven't seen any over 61 MB/s result got of these FreeAgent Pro eSATA connections... Most of the results still average between 30 to 40 MB/s.
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