Other External products

[Skyeclad]

TheSlick1/Tim2008

I have to concur, given the numerous postings regarding these issues with no response from anyone from Seagate, I'm not sure what we're expecting to happen. Are we helping each other by posting this information? I mean we do have 5 pages of messages which are not the only posts related to this problem.  A quick scan reveals that others are posting new threads with essentially this same issue.

I bought this drive for non-critical data, i.e. extra short-term media storage for an HTPC DVR and unfortunately I've lost some already thanks to this problem. I've learned from this board that Customer Service doesn't have an adequate response for this problem yet and exchanging the drive for a refurbished model at some expense to the customer is likely a waste of time.

So it would seem to be that we are left with the choice of voiding our warranty by removing the drive and use it as an internal drive or in another more reliable enclosure. Or we can wait to see if Seagate acknowledges the problem, determines a solution and offers this fix in the form of a firmware update or exchange program. Something tells me that number three isn't happening anytime soon or maybe never.

To the forum moderators, this is not a complaint. I am just observing the futility of continuing this conversation in a community forum that isn't being monitored by Seagate and cannot be resolved without their intervention. My suggestion to owners is to inform tech support but decide on your own if an exchange is worth it to you.

To that end I feel that this community would best be served by being informed of this outstanding issue and suggest that prospective owners consider avoiding purchase of the Maxtor OneTouch 4 500Gb. This thread has tought me that there is a problem, it effects an unknown portion of the user-base but in a relatively consistent fashion. The risk to the buyer is that we don't know what portion of the drives exhibit a problem only how many of them found their way to this forum and decided to post.

[Grateful2Know]

I just bought this drive today - and it is going back tomorrow.  I was thrilled with the speed as I backed up my laptop, and with the ease of setting up the automatic backup plan.  But as I checked the reviews on Amazon, and was directed to this forum, I am afraid to take a chance.  What a shame.  I hope Seagate takes this seriously because they are losing a lot of prospective customers because SO MANY people are having this same issue.  In this information age a company cannot afford to let this type of massive problem go unaddressed - people will tell their experience and word will spread quickly.

I wish luck to all those who are waiting for a solution and to those who are seriouly trying to help.

[ChrashM]

Don't be surprised if AlanM (Moderator) shuts this thread down also. He did to mine regarding numerous failed Maxtor 1.5TB One Touch IIIs, and yes I have all of the warranty/replacement information readily available, Seagate, if you care to listen to a customer that spent over $1500 on your products. In addition, the issue isn't my Mac Pro, due to how I use these drives, or my home's electrical service.

Didrik, sorry we didn't get to finish our conversation.


Seagate, start listening to your customers or you will never get our business back. Here's my last RMA# for background info. if you care to understand the issues at hand: {Removed}

Good luck.


{Edit: Hid personally identifiable infomation from public view}


Message Edited by Jaeger on 03-27-2008 01:50 PM

[Jaeger]

---

ChrashM wrote:
Don't be surprised if AlanM (Moderator) shuts this thread down also. He did to mine regarding numerous failed Maxtor 1.5TB One Touch IIIs, and yes I have all of the warranty/replacement information readily available, Seagate, if you care to listen to a customer that spent over $1500 on your products. In addition, the issue isn't my Mac Pro, due to how I use these drives, or my home's electrical service.

Didrik, sorry we didn't get to finish our conversation.


Seagate, start listening to your customers or you will never get our business back. Here's my last RMA# for background info. if you care to understand the issues at hand: 1000383975

Good luck.

---

Hi ChrashM,
 
The reasons that thread was closed are clearly stated.  You make it seem like we, the moderators,  go out of our way to close threads, just to make it in inconvenience for forums users.   As of this writing there are just less than 1800 threads here in the forum, and less than half a percent of those are closed, and that includes the threads that are read-only by design.

When does a thread get closed?  When it has gotten off-topic and the reader can no longer make sense of the issue presented.   Generally the first message in thread contains an issue, replies to that issue follow.  Trying to do some housekeeping to keep the forum better organized does not silence you or anyone else.

Does closing a thread censor a user?  No it really doesn't, because the thread is still here were everyone can still read it.  They also have the ability to open a new thread or voice their opinion in another thread, just as you have done here.  

What is Trolling?  Trolling is the act of purposefully antagonizing other people on the internet, generally on message boards.  Your post above fits the definition nicely.  It adds nothing of value to this thread, yet points the finger just to stir up some trouble. 

Please review the Community Rules and Regulations. 

[chp7701]

Jaeger,

I don't think this thread should be closed because it has moved off topic only slightly as the resulting problem is the same, as are the issues.

The focus is still on the problems we are having, and includes the "lack of effective support" that we as users have received to rectify the ongoing problems.

We have exhausted the normal means of tech support, RMA's, and for those of us who do not wish to spend the money to return the product only to receive another that will likely cause the same problems.

I believe that the users on this forum have amply demonstrated that there is a problem, and that it appears it is more likely hardware (read controller problems), than it is software.  Removing the drive from the case and putting it into a different manufacturer's case, or using it as a second internal drive eliminates the current problems we are experiencing as some users have posted.

The software still works, you can schedule backups and they run.  However, in my case, the drives are way wrong.  It sees my C: drive as the OT4, and is now backing up my files from C, D, E & F to the C: drive, not the OT4 drive and ends in the resulting disk full error.  While everything else appears normal, ie. Explorer, My Computer, etc. and other file synch utilities transfer files correctly, the software via the controller is not following the proscribed routine it is designed to follow.

I, as well as others have spent endless hours now trying to correct the problem for a $150 +/- piece of equipment.  That translates into costing us much more in time and support costs personally or for tech support departments than the products' original cost.

So yes this thread combines the problems, our frustrations and dealing with the support issues, and not just a ranting or provocative posting.  I still maintain that after six months of forum threads, there is nothing from Seagate/Maxtor that is acknowledging or correcting the problem.

The thread should not be closed, rather it should be expanded to tech support for an honest appraisal and review of the issues on this forum and the company website.

Carl

[Skyeclad]

Very odd that tech support is unable to reproduce the problem as of yet, there are nurmerous and consistent posts from users of the One Touch drives all experiencing similar issues with disappearing partitions and corrupted file allocations on this forum and on retail websites like Amazon yet these problems can't be reproduced in a test environment without doing something incorrectly. I'm not doubting you but let me say that I plugged my drive in and never removed it until partitions started to disappear and files began to disappear and become over-written. So, for me, this drive does not serve it's intended purpose which was to temporarily store video data that would be impractical to back-up regularly to another storage device given the high-rate of data turnover.

Perhaps the apparent extent of this problem is not concerning enough to Seagate to consider additional means to determine the cause of this problem. I would bet many forum participants would be willing to sell their units back to Seagate if they need a malfunctioning unit. As it stands now, Seagate is going to have to live with amounts to a very negative rating of this product until they do what is necessary to solve this problem. Given that many of us received our product over Black Friday, I would say that the intention of the promotion which I believe was to obtain market share through heavy discounting may not have been met as our opinion of Seagate may not be the best at the moment.

For now, I have removed the drive from the enclosure and will likely use as an internal drive or use another manufacturers enclosure.

[JanJanssen]

To be fair, look, if the Seagate guys can't reproduce the issue, then maybe it's not something that has to do with the line of drives.  Maybe it's something on your side, on the PC's side. 

On the one hand, I see what you're saying. 

On the other hand, I see a lot of irrational, wild-eyed types of comments that miss the point.  Accusations of some kind of moderator conspiracy from Chrash.  Please.  Arguments against closing this thread from chp, when no mod ever suggested that.  And lots and lots of "hey, there are like 5 threads on this problem, that must mean that there are thousands of units with the same problem out there!!!!" 

So I don't know, I'm just suggesting you stop making comments like those.  It's a pet peeve of mine to see otherwise smart people lose control and say these kinds of things because their drive isn't acting right.  Maybe you should just get rid of the drive and go get a WD.  Then go bug WD's forum or something.  Oh wait, they don't have one, do they?

[chp7701]

Seems there is a problem with the software on the OT4 at least, confusing the drives.  Support chat admitted to the problem, but there is no ETA on a upgrade/fix for the software at this time.

So uninstall the software, plug the drive in and XP will/should recognize the drive as a USB Mass Storage unit with MS drivers.  The Mgr s/w requires that the drive be formatted as NTSF to run.  You can reformat as FAT32, however, it will have to be reformatted to NTSF if and when future upgraded use of the Mgr s/w is used.

End of the line for me.

Chuck


Message Edited by chp7701 on 04-04-2008 10:47 AM