FreeAgent Products

[mcdannej]

Can we please get some guidance from the company as to model numbers, serial numbers, or some other way to determine which of the FA externals are from the bad batch(es)?  I have had two of two 1.5tb units die on me, a 100% failure rate - in the same ways described in many of these posts.  I'm sure many are lurking these forums or have just gone the RMA route without commentary.  My first RMA replacement has now arrived.  I really don't want to waste the hours and hours it will take to fill up this drive if it will die in 2 weeks like all the rest.  Even if there is no "solution" to this problem, a list of affected drives will at least help users prevent data loss and/or salvage some reputation.

[AlanM]

At this time, none of these have been recognised as affected.
I urge you to consider that 2 drives' failing does not say much about some kind of systemic firmware problem.

[justyxxxx]

Mine crashed and burned too - Device Manager showed it there, but it was not in My Computer nor the Storage Browser/Disk Management.  Storage Browser/Disk Management in Vista would lock up looking for it. 

I'd copied hundreds of gigs over to it - days worth of work wasted.  At least it died about a week later - well within my ability to return it to the store for a full refund.  

I actually bought two and I'm not waiting for the other one to fail.  They're both headed back to the store.

[frestonia]

Mine's dead too (Freeagent Desk 1.5TB).  Clicks like crazy and dismounts itself after a few minutes.  This after only 3 weeks of very light use.

The possibility of me buying another Seagate drive is dying too, especially with Seagate dragging its feet on providing a fix for an obviously widespread problem.

Message Edited by frestonia on 01-23-2009 09:56 AM

[mcdannej]

Alan,

I don't disagree. Two hard drives is not a problem.  It's not two hard drives.  If you tell me Seagate has looked into the situation with the clicking and crashing december FA drives and has decided that, even though they admit that the a number of their products manufactured during this time frame were defective, this one wasn't = OK.  I won't believe you, but OK.  But right now the problem is that there are literally scores of people reporting the same types of failutes with brand new drives and we are getting no attention paid to the problem, accept to critique sample sizes.  How about suggesting that Seagate has looked at the RMAed drives and doesn't see a consistent pattern, how about quoting exactly how "few" of these drives have been returned in the 6 weeks or so since they've been out - that ought to be some pretty indisputable evidence to shut us up.  Where is it?  I didn't think so.  

Listen, I don't expect a magic solution and I'm not trying to lynch the company.  I do expect some corporate responsibility, though, and I would think it would be in the company's long-term best interest as well. 

[steelsox1]

I just installed my FA 1.5TB drive TWO days ago and I am thankful I did not start my reorginzation of my data...just a small amount that I had not deleted from my orignal sources.  I got the dreaded Windows read/write error with a $Mtf error.  From there, I can't see the drive any longer and the Seagate Manager is of no help because it can no longer see the drive.

I try to pull the USB connection and plug back in, to which I get an unreognizable source error from Windows.  So, I re-boot, see it again, run the Test My Drive to be told all is just fine.  So, I chalked it up to a weird Microsoft glitch as that seems to happen quite often.

I then run my Acronis Image backup software to save to the FA drive and I get several partition corrupt errors, but Acronis seems to be able to ignore that...until it's time to actually finish the job and everything fails again.

So, I chat with the Seagate tech support rep and he tells me immediately to return it to the place of purchase.  He claims to have no other knowledge of these drives failing as I asked specifially about the TB sizes...so, either he is in the dark or towing the corporate line.  Either way, this thread has me leaning towards just returning it and getting another brand other than Seagate/Maxtor.

I just wanted to share that this issue is still out there.

[mcdannej]

Steel,

Nearly exactly what happened to me with two of the same drives.  Rest assured, though, apparently it's all a coincidence.

[Feldagast]

ST305004FDA1E1-RK

Sorry but are you saying that none of the freeagent drives have any of the defective hard drives in them?

On another note how do you find out what drive model is installed in your FreeAgent external USB drive? All that mine will say with either drivedetect or seatools is FreeAgent Desktop with a revisio of 100f with drivedetect or with seatools it tells me that it is a seagate freeagentdesktop with a revision of SD81.

[steelsox1]

McD - Coincidence...I think not from reading this forum very carefully.  I am quite miffed that Seagate tech support and contact folks are not leveling with us.  Most folks won't even take the time to check out a forum (my 1st thing for any software or hardware these days) or report their bad pieces...making the amount of folks describing the hard drive failures in this forum eye opening...it's a small sample, but other forums don't have this kind of frenzy unless there is definitely a problem.

Instead of taking another chance with a Seagate or Maxtor, I have decided to try a Western Digital My Book Essential Edition.  I could only find a 1TB drive and I'll check their forums out more thoroughly tomorrow.  I used to hold Seagate to a higher standard, but I guess they don't any longer.  Good luck with your conincidences!

[mcdannej]

Steel,

Sarcasm on my part on the coincidence thing.  You hit the nail on the head.  What they are seeing on this forum is the tip of the iceberg.  Just wait until the 100+ of these drives that are sitting on the shelves of my local micro center eventually get out the door.  Seagate can figure this out now, or lose what remains of its rep.

Also, I'd note. I did exactly the same thing yesterday - bought WD.  WD, Buffalo, samsung, hitachi, I don't care as long as its not Seagate or Maxtor at this point.  I'm going to try to get my 3tb of seagate drives up and running at some point, but unless we get a straight answer, I can't imagine trusting them with important data - what exactly do you do with 3 tb of unreliable storage?  A doorstop?.