Barracuda XT, Barracuda, Barracuda Green, DiamondMax and other desktop SATA and IDE drives

[Woodee]

The fact that everyone is demanding free data recovery is properly a step too far for seagate because data recovery is not covered in the warranty (as you said). But i'm sure providing a faulty product IS! So all most users here are after is a method to get their drive working in an unbricked state (which they said is possible because the data still resides on the disk even though it is not accessible) enough to be able to recover the data for themselves. Is that too much to ask? I may have lost 6 years work because of this drive going down. Foolish enough to believe that moving my data from an old 500 gb to a 1TB was going to be a good move!

I am still waiting patiently for a solution to unbrick a drive which out of the blue disappeared from the BIOS. Projects needing to be completed for clients just sitting there, waiting! I may be desperate enough to use that googled link that someone posted as it seems to have a good success rate. Most of us can't wait forever... maybe that is what Seagate are hoping for... that people wait SO long to get a response and recieve none, that they find a solution to recover the drive themselves and break their warranty... then Seagate are obligated to do NOTHING.

Reading this forum every day is getting very old and tiresome, I just wish there was light at the end of the tunnel! 

[Edited in compliance of the community rules and regulations.]

Message Edited by BradC on 01-30-2009 10:19 AM

[rwheel]

"Most of us can't wait forever... maybe that is what Seagate are hoping for... that people wait SO long to get a response and recieve none, that they find a solution to recover the drive themselves and break their warranty... then Seagate are obligated to do NOTHING."

I feel the same way, the lack of a strong stance just seems like they're hoping that customers will void their own warranties in one way or another, whether it be from attempting to restore their own data, or I cite my example of a warranty agent telling me to "just put the drive in an Anti-Static bag and adhere the shipping label to the bag then send the drive to us". EXCUSE me? Not only would that make it highly prone to G-shock ("sorry, your data is unrecoverable due to damage sustained during shipping" / "due to improper shipping, your drive has been determined to be out of warranty, now give us more money please" ) but also theft ("hey, look at that 1TB hard drive just sitting in that plastic bag. Wow, now that I can clearly see what it is, I should take it out of that bag... bags are known to rip and have contents fall out all the time!" / "We received your shipment at our facilities but it was just an Anti-Static bag with a pre-paid UPS label attached to it. A case agent has determined that this is fraud and we will now pwn you more. Kthxbye.")

Even if I do get them to agree to restore the accessibility of my drive, I don't know if I even trust them with my data at this point. 

[Lippy]

For me, this is not about getting my data recovered. It is about the abysmal service we are still getting from Seagate. Two reasons why I posted in this thread before.

1. Seagate supposedly offered free data recovery. I don't know if this is a rumour or not, but at least they should clarify this. If they are offering it, they should say so on their website instead of relying on the media to convey it to us. If they aren't offering it, they should at least confirm to us that they are not. They should be more direct with us, as right now there is more useful information about this issue outside of this website than there is inside. There are many of their customers with failed drives waiting around here wondering what's going to happen next. Ignoring us is the worst option, they should at least say yes or no.

2. Seagate admitted the data is not lost. There is even a solution posted on some external forums, which will not only fix the drive but will also restore all the data on it. Those forums are constantly being censored from these boards as if the people in charge here don't want you to fix the problem, leaving the customers here stuck in this hellhole Seagate calls service. The fix is cheap and for Seagate would be a 5 minute job, the only real expenses would be the shipping costs. Personally I don't even see what the point is in having a warrenty on these bricks when all you will get from it is a refurbished drive in exchange for your brand new drive and your data. I would rather void the warrenty and fix the drive myself, and be prepared to pay a small amount of money for the tools required, which as I said is cheap. It just goes to show the warrenty means nothing but a sack of fail. When you are better off going to this extreme, you know something is wrong.

[Tinu]

Mr SGEnthusiast : Please tell what if we have backed up our data in seagate drive only and if both main drive and backup drive are seagate and both fails.

For your kind information we also know what hard drive manufacturers warranty cover and what not.But what about moral responsibility and what about promise of minimum time between failures.

If your products fails in just 15 days or a month from the date of buying than who is responsible me or Company.

Again for your kind information this is not just 5-10 drive case this happens with a large amount of drives ,so please don't try to defend Seagate and don't go off topic in this thread.

If Seagate don't want to loose trust to there customers they have to listen there voice.

btw as we know technically our data is still intact ,we just can't communicate with the drive So if Seagate just provide us the solution that  how we can communicate with drive again we can retrieve our data back ourselves.

[fuzzby]

As much as i hate to admit it, SGE is pretty much on the ball with everything he's said. Usually when a company finds itself in a situation like this, they might do something extra to gain the customers trust again but this is by no means a policy. The economy is crud, Seagate isn't much better off. They can just honor the obligations that are on paper in every harddrive sold by them. Seagate really does not owe use anything beyond that. If Seagate sold motherboards or video cards would we expect them to restore our save games when our 3D games crash in the middle of a session? It's also in Seagate's best interests to obfuscate any truths about the defects as it makes the situation more manageable to them. A more recent example of this is with Nvidia and their 'bumpgate' conspiracy. 

Lawyer up? Maybe you should look into the IBM Deathstar settlement where everyone with a destroyed drive got a $100 cheque after years of lawyers smiling at each other. 

If everyone had backups like they're suppose to then this would have been a non-issue. It would have been nothing worse then a CPU fan dying in your PC. Unforunately people are ignorning warnings to backup, and hopefully that will be the last warning they'll need. 

Seagate probably didn't handle this situation very well but this is really more the norm now. Support in IT has always been the white elephant.

If you did not backup you still have options as mentioned in numerous posts:

$$$$ - professional data recovery

$$$   - buy the Repair Kit

$$     - find someone with a repair kit

$       - posted instructions for DIY repair kit

[rwheel]

I have an Intel chipset, fyi. So... you're wrong about the whole nVidia thing.

In communications with i365, they state that there is in fact free data recovery for these firmware issues, but I need to get an RMA case number to process the request, which I cannot get until my case is actually looked at by Seagate or I can get in contact with them. The lack of communication, as stated above, is the main cause for angering many of the customers.

And if Seagate is working on a solution to restore data/drive functionality in-home, then they should make a statement about it, and make more of an attempt to contact owners of potentially faulty drives to prevent any more bricking.

However, this is not the case.

I don't think that any user expects their HDD to have a 100% endurance rating and never fail, and if they do, they're being incredibly unreasonable... it's just very shoddy when I'm talking to tech support and they tell me the drive is dead and I need to RMA it, ignoring me when I reference the firmware issues, and then refer me to get a price quote from i365, until I state that I heard they were doing free data recovery. It shouldn't be the responsibility of the consumer to filter through every nook and cranny of message boards and such (as which often claimed by Alan, are customers only, and not an actual representation of Seagate) to get advice on restoring functionality to the hardware bought with their hard-earned money

I agree with you on some points, because they are valid, but your condescending tone is making it difficult for others to realize the truth in some of your statements.

If my data is in fact recoverable, I just want to get my data back without destroying my warranty. I will keep this very drive if it makes it simpler, and just update the firmware once the drive is detectable again. Perhaps a more well-manufactured cable as seen in the Gradius method for restoration, and an exe that will auto-run the commands necessary to de-brick the drive. I don't know how feasible that actually is, but it seems like a valid route to follow.

[fuzzby]

rwheel:

The nVidia issue i was referring to was the mass failures of Nvidia chipsets that are bricking due to the bump fill thermal failure. I was making that reference as an example of typical corporate behavior when confronted with their own product line failure. It has no bearing on the Seagate issue. You could have just look up "Nvidia+bumpgate"...

You agree with me on some points but you find my tone condescending? You infer too much from plaintext...

But sure, if you want a comforting pat on the back while you comiserate on these forums by all means..

[Damson]

Got the bricking problem yesterday. Went through the worst customer service today. All I want is a solution to unbrick my harddrive for free, not asking Seagate recover my data for free. They are different, the result would be same though.

[nomoreSg]

Here not one but many many HDD customers burned their hands. And we can agree on solution that Seagate fixes their mistake.

Currently Seagate try to blame everyone, but not its defect product:

1) Customers itself - you thought we are good company and bought defect product - your fault.

2) Customers itself - you didn't bought two faulty defect products (that makes our business better) to backup data - your fault,

3) Customers try to contact us? - we inside don't know anything about any problems, there are no problems,

4) Hmm - 100% HDD failure? - that's minor issue, not significant,

5) Hmm - 100% HDD failure - we issue firmware update,

6) Hmm - 100% HDD failure - we issue another firmware update to update first firmware update,

7) Customers try to contact us? - we send a mass E-mail again stating its a minor issue (our HDD are not defect despite 100% failure rate),

8) Lets blame some other companies like NVidia for some defect chips they put in and it makes Seagate HDD defect (of course we have no engineers to foresee it),

9) We issue statement for free fixing the HDD, but later remain still and ignore the customers as usual.

That can't be - we need actions from Seagate side. If there are only words, there will be more actions from customers side. I am going to visit Seagate on Monday. Let see what the representatives will tell me about their defect products.

 [Edited in compliance of the community rules and regulations.]

Message Edited by BradC on 02-01-2009 10:09 AM

[JRD393]

The offer of free data recovery was more than a rumor.  An official Seagate statement by spokesman Michael Hall on 16 January stated: "....But if you are unable to access your data due to this issue, Seagate will provide free data recovery services.  Seagate will work with you to expedite a remedy to minimize any disruption to you or your business."

Hall was further quoted as saying:  "We're offering free data recovery because the information on the drives is not deleted. It's just rendered inaccessible by this suspect firmware."

These statements have been echoed hundreds of times around the web (try googling "Seagate free data recovery") and earned Seagate some positive comments amid the overall debacle.  Seagate, however, has done nothing since to either retract or clarify the offer.  It seems they have chosen to pretend it was never made, banished down the Orwellian memory hole--while letting the favorable media comments stand.

On 23 January an i365 rep advised me all I needed to do for free data recovery was send an email to discsupport@seagate.com with the necessary data and obtain a "confirmation number" to give to i365.  I sent the email that day and have received no response other than a useless canned message referring me to Seagate's contacts page.