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

[kishy]

Hi all,

I've just bought a ST3750330AS 750GB drive from who would appear to be a reputable eBay seller. They have clearly stated it is manufacturer refurbished and that it will carry a 180 day manufacturer warranty. The payment and thus shipment is still in progress so I do not have the drive yet but it is mine. This means I can't provide a serial number for it yet.

From what I've read, it looks like this is one of the models that was plagued by serious firmware faults that can render the drive useless.

Once I have the drive, what should I do immediately to verify that the appropriate corrective measures have been taken, and if not, what is the complete process that I should do to ensure I get the longest possible service life out of the drive? It's worth noting that I'll be using it in the speed reduced mode because my motherboard is a bit on the old side (not sure if this particular mode is more or less likely to encounter problems).

Since it's supposedly a Seagate refurb I imagine it probably started as one of the faulty ones and has been fixed...but I want to play it safe anyway. Any help that anyone can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Edit:

I wanted to make sure it's clear that I know these topics are widespread across the forum, but for the most part they deal with correction after a problem happens and not a) how to detect a new drive has an issue and b) how to prevent it. Sure, these things are sprinkled throughout, but there are many conflicting posts so I wanted to start with a fresh one that would get me a clear, definitive answer so the post actually helps future readers.

Message Edited by kishy on 02-21-2010 01:19 PM

[fzabkar]

Try a SMART diagnostic tool. Look for reallocated, pending, or uncorrectable sectors.

HD Sentinel (DOS / Windows / Linux):

http://www.hdsentinel.com/

HDDScan for Windows:

http://hddscan.com/

See this article for SMART info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

You could use SeaTools to zero fill your drive. That should remap any bad sectors.

http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Then retest your drive with the above SMART tools and look for any increase in the number of bad sectors.

Ensure there is adequate cooling, and avoid installing your drive vertically, if the following thread is any guide:

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=17546

Verify your warranty status here:

http://support.seagate.com/customer/warranty_validation.jsp

For firmware updates, check here:

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=8968

Any of the above tools will report the drive's current firmware version.

Message Edited by fzabkar on 21-02-2010 04:39 PM

[kishy]

Great, thanks! It's nice to have everything I should do outlined in one spot.

SMART values are a given for me, I check them on any drive before I trust it with any sort of data. With the recent Seagate firmware issues though, and knowing a friend who went through two 7200.11 series drives before abandoning Seagate seemingly for life...well...I wanted to be sure I go about this the right way.

FWIW, I've got an ST-125 still alive and kickin'.

[kishy]

Well this is annoying.

Drive came, appears to work (Disk Management allowed me to partition it, format it, and I can put stuff on it and take it back off), but SeaTools doesn't find it. Note: running XP on ATA hard drive (a WD), the new Seagate is not the drive the software is running from. Drive is jumpered for 1.5mb/s operation since that's what my controller requires.

No unusual noises and sticker says it's a certified repaired drive. Details are:

ST3750330AS

S/N: 9QK1VDF1

P/N: 98X156-303

Firmware: SD1A

However stupid Seatools won't see the drive, and perhaps even more stupid, the warranty checker says "unknown" when I feed it this info. Have tried swapping Os with 0s, no luck. Edit: it's a Q, that's why. It's showing "Component" and that I should contact place of purchase for warranty service.

Assuming the sticker info is correct I should...it would seem...be safe from the firmware disasters, correct?

Regardless I'd like to know why Seatools is being a bit dense...

Edit: oh, and the transfer speed between the two drives is crud, but I'm going to assume this is because of them being on two different interfaces...for now.

[kishy]

Oh yeah, we've got a problem. Got a 'delayed write failed' and it disappeared from My Computer and Disk Management.

[fzabkar]

Seatools may not understand how to talk to your SATA controller. Try running Seatools for DOS, but configure your BIOS for legacy or IDE compatibility mode. This will make your SATA drive look like PATA.

[kishy]

Controller has no such mode in my system.

Ended up contacting eBay seller, they directed me to Seagate since it's "under warranty". Strange series of events began...

First person in the warranty department looked up the drive and said it has a warranty, ending on a particular date in May, and that they'd be able to help me if the drive ends up being defective. Wrote me up a ticket, gave me case number, transferred me to tech support to determine if drive is faulty.

Tech support directs me to use SeaTools for DOS (had to use floppy as I just reinstalled Windows on my other system and have no burning software installed). First tried the GUI version and while it listed the Seagate as available to select, trying to select it didn't work (checkmark just stayed on my WD, nothing I did could move it to the Seagate). So we then tried the text mode version, tried to switch to the drive and success.

Short test failed instantly "with errors", recommending I do the long test.

Long test failed instantly...I forget the exact wording, but what failed was the identify command, with 99 errors.

Tech support, as one would expect, determined drive was junk and added the appropriate info to my ticket then passed me back to the warranty people.

Apparently, somewhere between Warranty Person #1 and Warranty Person #2, the warranty on the drive stopped being provided by Seagate. OH REALLY? Then why the heck was Warranty Person #1 able to tell me the exact date the warranty ends on? Can't exactly make that up!

Quite disappointed with the way the warranty department handled this. I don't care if it's a "component" in Seagate's eyes, it doesn't matter who sends it to them, me or the middleman, either way it ends up back with Seagate for repairs

In any event the eBay seller, possibly accidentally, did specify a 30 day return policy on their listing so I'm pursuing sending it back to them. If they become nonresponsive like I expect they will I'll throw PayPal at them.

[fzabkar]

The ATA Identify Device command retrieves 512 bytes of information from the drive, including model number, serial number, features, specifications, total capacity, current settings, etc. I can't understand how this command could result in 99 failures, since it is this same command that is used by the BIOS to identify the drive. ???

Anyway, good luck pursuing your warranty problems.

[Cantbecanit]

I haven't read anything other than your post, all you need do is to read the label numbers from the drive and use the serial checker to make sure yours isn't affected, tbh the main bulk of faulties were 500's with 15 denomination FW's, hth.

[kishy]

@ fzabkar, that's weird. I don't know...I know the BIOS sees it correctly, but software doesn't (and it certainly doesn't behave well in Windows)

@ cantbeitcanit, I don't mean to suggest it's having THAT issue...just that it's having SOME issue. Certainly a bad one since it's not usable. I'm half tempted to try an OS install onto it and see what happens, but the eBay seller gave me an RMA number so that may just be the end of it.

And even if it IS one of the affected drives under 'that' issue, it doesn't matter. Seagate says it has a 'component' warranty and only the place of purchase can make the warranty claim.

@ Seagate...I understand this one might not be your fault, but it's worth noting that I don't know a SINGLE person who considers you trustworthy for data storage. If my FreeAgent Go 320GB fails - within 10 years - you'll lose my confidence for good as well, despite the fact I've got a stack of still-operational Seagate MFM and RLL drives sitting on a shelf. HDDs should have a service life of at least 10 years if you want me as your customer.