What are these hard drive features about?

[OBWan]

I recently got two batches of WD7500AACS (WD 750GB GP) drives. Namely, they are WD7500AACS-00D6B0 and WD7500AACS-65D6B0. I noticed some difference between the two batches in "supported features" shown under HD Tune's drive info tab. The 65D6B0 batch does not support the following features which the 00D6B0 batch does:

* Host Protected Area
* Interface Power Management
* Security Mode

Out of curiosity, I searched online but didn't find much info about these features. I would like to learn about their effects and usage (respective application in particular). Also like to know is what I lose without each respective feature. Thanks for any input/pointer in advance!

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: OBWan
Also like to know is what I lose without each respective feature.

You may not be losing anything. It may be that HD Tune just isn't reporting it for some reason.
Are you running the restricted free version or the "Pro" version?

 

[Nothinman]

* Host Protected Area

This is supposed to be a small area on the hard disk that the OS can't see so that OEMs can stick diag tools and stuff there.

* Interface Power Management

I would guess that this is the ability of the drive to power down it's SATA interface to save power.

* Security Mode

Not sure but I would guess this is built-in password/encryption. Personally, I'd rather trust filesystem level encryption provided by the OS.

 

[OBWan]

Thanks for your replies! Blain - it's the "Pro" version and I got confirmation by HDDScan v3.1 which indicates neither of the following is supported by WD7500AACS-65D6B0:

* Host Protected Area (HPA) -- Not Supported
* Password Protection -- Not Supported

Which sort of confirms Nothinman's suggestion about the "Security Mode" shown on HD Tune Pro being the same as "Password Protection". Although, HDDScan does not show anything about "Interface Power Management".

Question for Nothinman - I wonder how "Security Mode" or "Password Protection" works. And does TPM require this feature to work properly?

Lastly, I wonder if Western Digital offers any utility to enable/disable these features. I might try to bug them and see if they send me anything.

 

[OBWan]

Ok, I just called WD tech support but got no help from a level-2 agent. The agent looked into their database and told me that the 65D6B0 batch were specially configured for some HP computers. He suggested me to return them back to the distributor. Then I asked him about those hard drive features, he said it is proprietary information and he couldn't talk about it. He also mentioned that they only give firmware patch or utility software to the distributors who order at least 30,000 units from WDC in a single transaction.

I wonder why HP wants those features off - I see no benefits in performance or power usage at all.