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

[Anky]

Hi

I purchased a Seagate 72001.11 Barracudda 500GB ST3500620AS HDD today. It says on the label that it's a 'Certified Repaired HDD'. I searched on Google and found that it means that it was a refurbished piece. So what should be my next step ? Should I get it changed ?

Also, this drive is not detected by my BIOS. It does spin though. I found the hyperterminal solution but since it's a just-bought drive, I think I should get it changed.

Should I prefer to NOT OPT for a Certified Repaired HDD ? Is a replacement piece likely to cause the same problem ? Is there some probem with the 7200.11 series ? Should I avoid them ?

I know it's a bit too much of questions but it'd be GREAT if you could help out a lost guy. BTW, I bought the drive in India for USD Eq. of ~$56. That's the price everybody's quoting for drives in this range. Is this alright or is it fishy if one's getting drives at such a cheap rate ?

[Cantbecanit]

If it was sold as a 2nd's drive then thats ok, if it wasn't and you got a refurb you should be complaining, but to the vendor not Seagate.

It won't show up as working until a sata driver is loaded to it, if it's not showing at boot time though on the black screen return it, it's not for you to have to repair a new drive.hth

[Anky]

Well, it's not showing on the BIOS either. So I guess I'll get it changed. Seeing the number of problems with 7200.11s here, are they a safe product to go for ?

And about the SATA Drivers, can you tell me how to install them ? Are there generic drivers for SATA or are they motherboard specific ? And do I install them like any other driver ?

[fzabkar]

I would expect that a certified drive would have had all the firmware updates applied to it.

As for your BIOS detection problems, is it possible that there is a SATA speed compatibility issue with your motherboard? Normally the drive and SATA controller should autonegotiate a compatible speed. If this fails, some drives can be forced to 1.5Gbps with a jumper, but this jumper is ignored in the later models.

Serial ATA Jumpers and Cabling:
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=Serial_ATA_Jumpers_and_Cabling&vgnextoid=4a0...

Jumper settings for Seagate SATA hard drives:
http://www.seagate.com/images/support/en/us/cuda_sata_block.gif

[Anky]

I tried the jumper but it didn't work. I had attached the jumper only partially though. It's a pain to remove it if you push it fully. It might be possible that my MoBo being a 2004 model, the SATA interface in it might be primitive, and not fully supported. Coz it has full UltraIDE support. Anyway, I exchanged the drive for an external one. Thanks for your help, guys.