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

[zickvon]

I bought three 7200.12 1TB drives a few weeks ago, all with firmware CC34. One of them made some 'clicking' sound yesterday. But it was still working so far. I read some people complaining about the CC34, reporting the same problem, which will lead to a dead drive eventually.

Shall I RMA mine? as it is still working.

And if I RMA, will I get another CC34, or the better CC44? 

[graham.k · Accepted solution]

If you suspect that a drive may be failing, test it with SeaTools. If the long DST fails, you should RMA it. If the test passes, then presumably there's nothing wrong with the drive.

I don't know what firmware you'll get, but I'm sure Seagate won't ship a replacement unit with a firmware version that they believe to be problematic.

Keep your backups up to date at all times, and remember that a RAID is not a backup.

[zickvon]

Thanks for the help. But I just had another problem. I only have Vista 64 at home, and appearantly, it wasn't supported by Seatools!

[graham.k]

Can you try SeaTools for DOS?

[LeeH]

SeaTools are Vista64 compatible, but it's better to use SeaTools for DOS if you want to correct errors on your boot disk.

[zickvon]

Well, I don't think Seatools is Vista 64 compatible. It loose response on my computer. And there is another thread on this forum complainning this problem.

So I guess SeaTools for DOS is the only option I've got left. 

[Cantbecanit]

Check for a flash upgrade, if there isn't one try it in another machine if thats possible, if it does the same RMA asap.

Also if you have a nVidia chip on your MB look for a bios upgrade, there is issues with 1TB+ drives right now, but don't wait for it to die, get all your data off it as a safety measure, it shouldn't click.

[zickvon]

Yes, I'm using nVidia motherboard, evga 780i. I checked their website, and I'm using the latest BIOS, which was released in March. So what's the issue you mentioned?

And I trid SeaTools for DOS. Two of my drives passed the test, the other one that makes clicking sound crashed the test program for the first two test run (right after the test started). The third time, it could proceed with the test, but I canceled it and login into Windows to backup my data. I think it's time for a RMA. 

[graham.k]

If you're using an nVidia motherboard, make sure you have the latest drivers installed. Note that the motherboard manufacturer may not publish the latest drivers; you may have to go directly to nVidia.

For future reference, you should always try to backup any data that isn't already backed-up, before attempting to do any testing/repair/recovery.

[zickvon]

Thanks for the reminding. I get latest driver from nVidia and BIOS from eVGA.

As my drive is full, I have no spare drive to backup the data. I know it's not a good thing testing it without backup. Maybe I should buy more hd, but not ST any more.