Reducing hard drive noise

[Tristan]

I remember reading in the past about little DOS programmes that were available which would set hard drives to a "low noise" setting, at the expense of seek times. I've got a couple of old ATA drives that are I'd like to quieten down -- does anybody know where I could get such programmes?

The harddrives in question are an 80GB IBM Deskstar and a 20GB Maxtor.

Thanks!

[LemonyBrainAid]

This isn't answering your question, but I've found you can reduce hard drive sound by suspending and sandwiching the actual hard drive yourself -

http://www.silentpcreview.com/module...artid=8&page=1

Just found it on the web, thought it might help

[Keytops]

Dunno about Maxtor, but the IBM (now Hitachi) Deskstar Feature Tool is available here http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

The Feature Tool allows you to:

• Enable or disable the read-ahead or write cache.
• Change the drive Automatic Acoustic Management settings to the:
  • Lowest acoustic emanation setting (Quiet Seek Mode), or
  • Maximum performance level (Normal Seek Mode).
• Change the predefined capacity of the drive. ....

[altis]

For the IBM try the Feature Tool here:
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#Optimize

Maxtor don't seem to have an equivalent:
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...re%20Downloads

Edit
Bugger - spent too long wandering around the Maxtor site!