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

[jacksg]

I SPECIFICALLY purchased a retail box (confirmed unopened) from a major-name office supplies store because the specified model SATA drive was a
ST3500641AS, which has a Warranty period of 5 years.

Inside the box however was a
ST3500418AS, which has a Warranty period of only 3 years.

Also, the 418AS drive sell for $20 LESS than the 641AS drive that I paid for. This is a BIG concern.

I purchased the MORE EXPENSIVE ST3500641AS-RK drive BECAUSE it supposedly has the 5 year warranty period.

I had heard Seagate was swapping models inside boxes and that's why I immediately checked the model number using 3 different programs that interrogate drive SMART data.

I want to know:

1) Why was the shorter warranty 418AS drive provided?

2) What warranty period will actually be honored?

3) What PROOF do I have or will get that the full 5 year warranty will be honored?
If I have to submit a warranty action, I do not want to find our 4 years from now that no one at Seagate has any record that a 5 year warranty was provided, since the drive I turn in would obviously show up on the technicians' computers as a ST3500418AS...the 3 year warranty drive.

4) The TECHNICAL DATA re: the differences in Seagate performance tests between these 2 model drives.

If Seagate is substituting a slower drive...by ANY amount for any parameter...then customers deserve to know this.

[fzabkar]

See this similar thread:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Barracuda-XT-Barracuda-and/ST3500418AS-sold-in-a-ST3500641AS-RK-box/m-p...

The ST3500418AS is a current model drive and is twice as fast as the much older ST3500641AS.

I have no answer for your warranty concerns, though.

[AlanM]

Can you PM me your serial number, please?  I will look into this for you.

[jacksg]

I think you got it backwards.

According to the written drive specifications the ST3500418AS is measurably slower than the 641AS in several parameters.

The avg Read/Write seek performance of the 418AS appears to be almost 4% and 6% SLOWER respectively than the 641AS.

The track-to-track seek read and write times are both almost 20% SLOWER for the 418AS.

[jacksg]

"09-17-2010 07:02 AM

Can you PM me your serial number, please?  I will look into this for you."

Thanks for the offer. However, I finally found the warranty verification webpage (after getting a hint at another website) and I verified the warranty actually expires almost 2 MONTHS earlier than the 5 year period based on my purchase date. I'm glad it's the "5 Year" warranty instead of the individually packaged 418AS' "3 Year" warranty, but it would be nice if it was actually the FULL 5 years.  Perhaps Seagate is making the calculation based on some number of DAYS or something, but to label it as "5 Years" in conventional thinking means ANNIVERSARY years...e.g. the same month/day of the year.

Purchase date:     20100913

Warranty Expires: 20150723  (per Seagate Warranty Verification webpage)

I remain very much bothered by the fact that the "Retail-Kit" box was clearly labeled ST3500641AS, yet the drive included inside was not the 641AS, but the 418AS. Apparently this "Retail Kit" can include other drives as well. I read on one website where the individual received an ST3500528AS instead of the 641AS. It has been explained to me that it is the "Retail Kit" designation that makes drive substitutions possible and/or likely...but the customer won't know which drive is provided until the actual drive is removed from the box.

I will have to give some consideration as to whether I want to commit to having ST3500418AS drives instead of the drives I thought I was buying. The different model drives DO have different customer reviews/experiences and different specifications.

In my opinion it would be better all around had Seagate simply provided accurate and consistent information to the customer at the point of purchase. Customers appreciate being able to make an informed choice...not being surprised.

[fzabkar]

I guess your real performance yardstick should involve a bechmark that reflects your intended usage. Transfer rate would be an important criterion for multimedia applications, for example. You could also do backups and virus scans in half the time with the 418AS model.

According to sections 2.4 and 2.3 of the following documents, the maximum sustained data transfer rates for the 418AS and 641AS are 125 and 65 Mbytes/sec, respectively.

Barracuda 7200.9 Serial ATA Product Manual, Rev. D:
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/manuals/sata/100390001c.pdf

Barracuda 7200.12 Serial ATA Product Manual, Rev. G:
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/desktop/Barracuda%207200.12/100529369g.pdf

[AlanM]

jacksg,

Did you get the email from our Customer Service people?

[Philup]

I have the same situation as the OP described, only when I try starting the RMA process for which Seatools has already given me a warranty validation code the status for the drive comes back as unknown, but the serial from the box that it came in validates just fine.

How do I proceed?