Issue raw ATA commands to devices

[alan6895]

Hello everyone.
I'm hoping somebody here can help me. I recently bought a Seagte ST9200420ASG drive for my laptop. This drive has a fall sensor that parks the heads when a fall is detected. The problem is that this feature is not enabled by default on my model (and only my model, for whatever reason). In order to enable it, I have to issue certain ATA commands, as detailed in Seagate's manual (

http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/notebook/momentus/7200.2/100451238d.pdf).

I need to know how to do this. There has to be a utility, since it's a supported feature and OEMs can do it. Anybody have any thoughts? I've found limited information on interacting with hardware through VB .NET, but I don't get how to use it or what I need to do. Basically, if someone can tell me how to pass the command to the device, I can probably write up an app that passes the command entered to the drive. Thanks!

 

[Qik3Coder]

Have you searched for an OEM app that does this? VB.Net is a little "High" as in high away from the hardware, to normally do these sorts of things, without trouble.

You may want to look at C++ to get directly at the hardware.

My $0.02

If [blue]you have problems[/blue], I want [green]source code[/green] AND [green]error messages[/green], none of this [red]"there was an error crap"[/red]

 

[alan6895]

Qik3Coder:
I have search for OEM, commercial, and developer-made programs. I haven't had much luck. I just found one that's supposedly promising, so we'll see if it actually works at all. I know a program must exist because 1) if Seagate talks about the commands, there must be a way to use them, and 2) the Seagate support tech said they have one but "it's very expensive and requires a license key." And he said he didn't have the name.

Anyway, I'll look at C++. I'll repost over there (unless someone can tell me how to move this thread or something) and see if anyone has ideas. Thanks for yours thoughts! The little things at least get me going in the right direction.

In the meantime, if anybody else happens to know how to get VB .NET to talk to hardware, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[Qik3Coder]

You can't move a thread. I only suggest C++ because it's less padded than VB.Net. I'm assuming there has to be a way. Have you tried to find the driver that the hard drive uses? Try to add it as a reference, and see what happens...?

If [blue]you have problems[/blue], I want [green]source code[/green] AND [green]error messages[/green], none of this [red]"there was an error crap"[/red]

 

[Sorwen]

Or C#. The company my friend works for uses it for everything they do and they have a lot of hardware interactive programs.

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