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

[cmj]

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AlanM wrote:

cmj:

The tech reports that he told you that the drives are the same.  So I'd forget about it - it's not worth the anxiety.

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I'm sorry Alan, but that is just not true. The Tech told me that the pn's are indeed different and the only "sameness" is the fact that both pn's are 500gb. There is a cache difference and a platter density difference. I talked to 3 techs about this and maybe you talked to a fourth one?

They requested that I submit pictures of the labels on the 4 drives so that they can update their system and I did. 

9BD648-550 = 4 platters 16mb cache (7200.9  family)

                     = 3 platters 16mb cache (7200.10 family)

9BX154-303 = 2 platters 32mb cache (7200.11 family)

My 4 affected drives all have 7200.11 9BX154-303 labels yet the Seagate system shows them as 9BD648-550

This should be rectified.

Message Edited by cmj on 03-04-2009 01:24 PM

[sham63]

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sham63 wrote:

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AlanM wrote:

sham63:

I looked up your case, and you told tech support specifically to close your case on 19Feb.  

Are you saying you want to reopen it now?

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I had two cases open, one by phone, 00253514, and one by email, 00246746, opened originally on 2-16,  maybe three if the chat tech opened one before he said he could not help me. The phone tech told me that my drive was not a 7200.11 but a 7200.9 series even though my drive says it is a 7200.11 drive. He said all I was due was exchange only because my drive shows up in the system as a st3500641as. I found out in another thread that there are others that bought retail kits and ended up with a 7200.11 drive labelled oem. The email case I got frustrated with no response and did tell them to close. They replied 2-23 and said I could reflash my drive even though it could not be seen in the bios. I tried that and it did not work. The tech closed it as solved when he sent his initial response. I put it in to reopen at that time (2-23) when the flash did not work. There has been no response since that time.

Jim 

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Well, I have opened another case a couple of days ago. I don't really think that it will do any good. I finally the ran the s/n number checker and it told me that my drive was affected. I put that and what the phone tech tech told me in my new case. But what is weird is when you fill out warranty returns it comes up as a st3500641as. So somehere in this system my drive is considered both a st3500320as and a st3500641as.

What happened to the mod looking at my case? He seems to have not answered my reply to his question. He reply to someone else after my reply. I guess he did not like my facts about this. But it is ridiculous the way that seagate is handling this issue with the 7200.11 drives.

[culpeper]

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 "So somehere in this system my drive is considered both a st3500320as and a st3500641as."

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Got mine recently at OfficeMax and just discovered that the box shows ST3500641AS and the operating system (WinXP Home) and BIOS is identifying ST3500320AS.   It also shows ST3500320AS on the HD itself.  The 641AS comes with 16MB and the 320AS comes with 32MB?

So, what is the MSRP between the two or is this just an administrative mistake that doesn't make a difference one way or the other?

Message Edited by culpeper on 03-07-2009 03:57 PM

[sham63]

I have one of these drives bricked(st3500320as support thinks is a st3500641as) and Seagate support has approved sending the drive to i365. I opened 3 cases (4 if the chat session counts) to get this resolved. I am glad it finally has been taken care of. In the last case I opened after the tech replied for some more info I attached a picture of the label, and after I was told to call i365. I did and the drive is going out today. I don't know if it depends on the support tech or what, but you should definately put everything and anything into the case when you open it.

One I don't understand, is the drive shows up in support as st3500641as (7200.9 series), but when I ran the s/n checker it came back as an affected drive. I am just glad this is getting resolved. All drives can have problems, but good support keeps customers and bad support chases them away. On this las case I received good support.

JIm

[jeffvincent]

blank_page

   Add another sucker to the list.

   I bought a ST3500641AS-RK / ST3500320AS at Best Buy on November 5, 2008.  On February 18 it would no longer respond to BIOS.  I checked the Seagate site to confirm it was dead and initiated a replacement (unfortunately I didn't dig far enough to learn about the epidemic of 7200.11 failures or the free data recovery at that time and lost three months worth of data [data that wasn't worth paying hundreds of dollars for, but was worth something] as a result).  March 10 I got a 7200.10 drive as a replacement. 

   I've asked support (case #00287682) as to why I got an older generation drive and got the "we show you had a 7200.9, please send us proof" reply.  So I've sent back a reply trying to show (since I know longer have the drive or original packaging in my possession):

* The Seagate product finder shows my drive model # (320AS) as a 7200.11

* It failed in the same manner that the 7200.11s are failing

* Knowledge Base article 207931 has a serial number checker that confirms that my drive is an affected (7200.11) drive

* This thread supports that Seagate has a serial number mis-match problem.

   As far as "you got something better than what you purchased", no, how I got it is irrelavant to the fact that I did have a 7200.11, and Seagate should return a "functionally equivalent" drive (as their warranty statement reads), not a drive that is older, slower, and noisier than what I sent in to them.

-- Jeff 

[cmj]

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AlanM wrote:

cmj:

The tech reports that he told you that the drives are the same.  So I'd forget about it - it's not worth the anxiety.

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Alan, My case is STILL not resolved.

What good is it to open a case, talk to techs, and do what they request of me, only to have it ignored?

What is happening with Seagate reliability?

How about honesty?

To others on this thread, this is a serious problem.

If you RMA a 7200.11 drive that has the incorrect info in thier system (i.e. it shows as a 9BD648-550 in the warranty checker) you WILL get either a 7200.9 or 7200.10 drive in return.

[culpeper]

This really sucks.  Based everything I've been reading on this forum how am I to believe their serial number checker?  It says mine is not affected.  We'll see.

I will tell you one thing and that is if I go into to a store and the only thing they have on the shelf is a Seagate, like what happened to me at OfficeMax, I'm just going to turn around and walk out the store.  First Seagate, Last Seagate.   Customer service is Goodwill.  It's a accounting term and not a tech term and is worth money.

Techs lying for the company don't make it right, Hoss.

Message Edited by culpeper on 03-15-2009 04:01 PM

[JHBoricua]

Bah!

After a bunch of email exchanges, I was assured that I would get shipped the right drive. Seagate issued a return label for the 7200.9 and I shipped it back. Today I got a email notice with details of Seagate 2nd attempt at sending me a replacement unit:

                             SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY

                           Your order has shipped!

=================================================
ORDER NUMBER:    14218054
===============================================================================
LIN PRODUCT NUMBER                   PRODUCT DESCRIPTION            SHP QTY
--- ---------------------------      ------------------------       ----------
 1 9BJ148-305                       ST3750640AS                            1

So just looking at the model number I see it doesn't match what my original drive was (ST3500320AS). Googled it and it comes back as being a 7200.10....

*sight*

I'm baffled at the level of incompetence displayed by this company.

[cmj]

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JHBoricua wrote:

Bah!

After a bunch of email exchanges, I was assured that I would get shipped the right drive. Seagate issued a return label for the 7200.9 and I shipped it back. Today I got a email notice with details of Seagate 2nd attempt at sending me a replacement unit:

                             SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY

                           Your order has shipped!

=================================================
ORDER NUMBER:    14218054
===============================================================================
LIN PRODUCT NUMBER                   PRODUCT DESCRIPTION            SHP QTY
--- ---------------------------      ------------------------       ----------
 1 9BJ148-305                       ST3750640AS                            1

So just looking at the model number I see it doesn't match what my original drive was (ST3500320AS). Googled it and it comes back as being a 7200.10....

*sight*

I'm baffled at the level of incompetence displayed by this company.

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Yup...7200.10

But, they sent you a 750gb instead of the 500gb

Which leads me to believe that even though they must have an extremely high return rate on the 500gb 7200.11's, that they don't have enough refurbed and ready to ship for warranty replacements.

They must be crushing them due to other issues that no one at Seagate is willing to disclose, but take that comment with a grain of salt since I have no proof of that, other than what's been posted on these forums and around the net.

I also know of another person who sent in a 7200.11 500gb and got back a 7200.11 750gb, but that one was correctly shown in Seagates system as a 7200.11 500gb. Again, no recertified 500gb 7200.11 on the shelf? Where did they all go?

[JHBoricua]

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cmj wrote: 

Yup...7200.10

But, they sent you a 750gb instead of the 500gb

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The extra capacity doesn't do any good when this drive is in a home PC as a RAID member. It will go unused. I intend to refuse the shipment when it gets to my home.