FreeAgent Products

[Kenchan]

For those having this same problem, this drive isn't listed in Seagate's announcement, meaning there still isn't any official word on what's up with these drives.  Thank you for staying professional Alan, but it doesn't really help any of us out :/

Out of nowhere I turned on my computer with this plugged in via SATA again, and it was working without a hitch.  I've since copied about half of what I've lost, and have nowhere to put the rest so far.  I have no idea why it had the same problems when I fired it up this way the first time.  Regardless, once it's all copied, it's going back to NewEgg in a heartbeat.

Sorry to say, but I dug up the 4 HDDs (1 750GB, 2 400GB, 1 300GB) that died on me a few years ago kind of all at once; they were all Seagates.  I think it's self-explanatory I will never buy a Seagate product again. 

[AlanM]

Very sorry about that.  Please see here for an explanation of why the FA Desk doesn't appear in that Knowledge Base article.

[thrashmagazine]

so Alan, are their plans to fix these drives? It is obvious their are issues with them as well.

[AlanM]

At this time, I am not aware of any systemic problems with these, no.
Could you please clarify what you mean when you say it is obvious that there are issues with them?

[mcdannej]

Alan,

Is that a serious question?  How many people need to be complaining about drives that have been out for weeks before you guys are concerned about these drives.  I bought two. One has already been RMAed and hopefully a replacement is here very soon.  The other is now dead.  Check the other postings in this forum.  Check other places.  I find out about the nature of the collective problem with postings on a Tivo forum.  Yes Tivo.  Enough tivo owners were seeing problems that it became a topic of conversation.  I have been a frequent consumer level customer for years and a brand agnostic.  No longer.   If you guys don't step up to the plate and get a handle on the scope of the problem and communicate any ideas for dealing with it, this is going to effect brand recognition and quality perception in a very serious way.

[nedgar]

I purchased two FreeAgent XTreme 1.5TB drives. Neither of them mount reliably on any of my 4 Macs. I have to try plugging and unplugging power, firewire, or USB in different sequences. After several tries, sometimes one of the drives will mount on the desktop. The same sequence may or may not work the next time. Alan, is there an incantation that may help? Maybe I need a shrunken head or herbs. Can you help?

Please excuse my sarcasm. I'm frustrated. The problem is REAL.

Message Edited by nedgar on 01-23-2009 04:09 PM

[Feldagast]

How do you tell what model of drive you have in the freeagent desktop. Seatools and Drivedetect simply state its a Freeagent Desktop and a serial number, but no mention of the actual drive installed. Also I believe the firmware revision is also odd one program says its 100f and the other says SD81. Everything including looking in winXP system only says freeagent desktop as the model. I tried a program called everest and it says the drive is a ST3500820AS with a firmware of SD81, but there is no mention of that firmware anywhere and the drive lookup doesn't list it as a valid drive model.

[WScottCross]

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AlanM wrote:
At this time, I am not aware of any systemic problems with these, no.
Could you please clarify what you mean when you say it is obvious that there are issues with them?

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So let me get this straight:

The bare drives require a firmware update to prevent them from whatever causes them to shut down, but when those drives are mounted in an external enclosure, they don't need the update?  You would be hard pressed to confince me that Seagate uses different drives to mount in the enclosure.  If I hook mine via eSata, it looks just like an internal drive. 

Please clarify why the bare drive needs an update but the same drive mounted in the FreeAgent enclosure does not.

[me0101]

I have had the same problem for months. I just recieved my fourth or fifth RMAed HDD, and as soon I plugged it in, it began clicking.

[dingspro]

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WScottCross wrote:

The bare drives require a firmware update to prevent them from whatever causes them to shut down, but when those drives are mounted in an external enclosure, they don't need the update? You would be hard pressed to confince me that Seagate uses different drives to mount in the enclosure. If I hook mine via eSata, it looks just like an internal drive. Please clarify why the bare drive needs an update but the same drive mounted in the FreeAgent enclosure does not. 

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I assume the firmware of the external drives to be of a different branch, optimized for that specific controller. But as this would be a good selling point -- nothing to be covered in silence -- I am not convinced.