Mine came with outdated firmware (SN03, current version is SN04). You can get the update from Seagate's site by putting in your serial number. The download takes forever because it's close to dial-up speeds. It comes with a cross-platform command-line utility. I booted to a live Linux session to do the update. Instructions are included. Be careful, the commands are case-sensitive.
This drive has TLER (Time-Limited Error Recovery) which is usually intended for RAID setups. I think it's probably fine to leave this enabled, even when used on its own. The default timer appears to be 10 seconds. If the drive can't sort things out in that period, I doubt more time is going to make much of a difference. You can disable (or adjust) it with smartmontools (also included with GSmartControl). However, the setting must be reapplied after every power cycle. Here is the command:
smartctl -l scterc,0,0 /dev/sdX
(Replace sdX with the designation of your drive.)
This drive does not support conventional APM (Advanced Power Management). However, it does have power-saving features. It has multiple modes, including one that parks the heads and another that reduces the spindle speed. These are enabled by default and too aggressive for my tastes. You can use the SeaChest utility to adjust or disable these. Here are the commands for the Windows version:
SeaChest_PowerControl_x64_windows -s
SeaChest_PowerControl_x64_windows -d PDx --showEPCSettings
SeaChest_PowerControl_x64_windows -d PDx --EPCfeature disable
SeaChest_PowerControl_x64_windows -d PDx --powerBalanceFeature info
SeaChest_PowerControl_x64_windows -d PDx --powerBalanceFeature disable
Use the first command to determine the "handle" of your drive. For the subsequent commands, replace the "PDx" with your drive's handle. The second and forth commands display the current status of those features. The third and fifth commands disable the respective features. These settings DO appear to persist through power cycles.
