Cool, your new version works! Did exactly as you said it would: Gave me one error instead of two, but still set the value.

Interestingly, when I set the value to zero, doing hdparm -I doesn't even show the "Recommended Acoustic Management Value" at all, the line is missing from the output. But when I set it to anything nonzero, then the line appears in the output.

I'm going to mess with the settings and see if they make a difference.

THANKS!!!!