Other External products

[MAMBO04]

Hey all,

Basically, i have two Seagate External HDD's, the 1TB ones. I can provide the serial numbers if you want, but they are the newest Expansion HDD's. Firstly, one HDD (which is full to the brim) has failed and i've already filled in a replacement for it, but i just want to ask before i do that, the green light flicks on and off when a power source is connected to it, but there is no sound coming from the HDD, is that a full fledged failure?

Also, i just got another one this week, and i turned it on today, working okay, i'm using Windows 7 by the way, and i tried to copy some data from that HDD to my PC, it took ages in discovering how many items to transfer, and when it finally did start transferring it was going at 2.33kb/s! it wasn't working properly at all, everything else was fine though which was odd. My comp kept on getting stuck as well whenever i tried to navigate through the HDD. Listened to the HDD, it was working but there was a slight flickering sound but it was very small. I don't know what's wrong with it but i really DON'T want to send this one back and get all my data erased, i transferred my whole video footage from my trip to Morocco and i'm afraid it's going to be lost. I have a lot of other stuff on it too and replacing isn't an option for me at the moment, as you can see it's working fine, but it's acting amazingly odd.

Also realised something else, when i picked it up it was really REALLY magnetic. In other words you know when magnets repel, it was repelling from something but it was pretty strong, don't know if this is usual?

So overall, i'm pretty sure my first HDD has failed, but just want to confirm with you guys, and my second one is working fine, as in the computer detects it, i can see my files/folders, but i cannot copy anything to it or copy from it, and it frequently gets stuck so it makes it impossible to navigate through. I just got it as well.

Thanks for any help, i really want to sort this without replacing it. Data is invaluable, after all

[fzabkar]

The drive that doesn't power up sounds like it would be the easiest to repair, provided that you would be prepared to void your warranty. However, in light of your current problems, you may get a sympathetic ear from Seagate Tech Support, and they may allow you to go ahead.

The new drive appears to have media or head problems. Try running SeaTools, or a more comprehensive SMART diagnostic. Look for reallocated, pending, or uncorrectable sectors.

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

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.

[MAMBO04]

Thanks for replying. Hmm well if it's easy to repair i wouldn't mind doing it, and voiding my warranty, but i'll email Seagate and tell them about my situation right now and see what they say as well, would it be possible if you could provide me with instructions on how to do it?

Ah i see, i have SeaTools on my laptop at the moment so i'll run that, and post back here with the log.

Thank you for the help

EDIT: i ran the tests. They all failed :/

--------------- SeaTools for Windows v1.2.0.1 ---------------
03/04/2010 14:40:12
Unit Serial: 2GHK9780
Unit Model: Seagate Desktop
Model: ST31000528AS
Serial Number: 5VP20AEC
Firmware Revision: CC37
Test Unavailable - Test Unavailable 03/04/2010 14:40:12
Short DST - Started 03/04/2010 14:40:21
Short DST - FAIL 03/04/2010 14:40:26
SeaTools Test Code: 629F9FEC
Long Generic - Started 03/04/2010 14:40:47
Bad LBA:          868     Unable to repair
Long Generic - FAIL 03/04/2010 14:41:30
SeaTools Test Code: 629F9FDC
Identify - Started 03/04/2010 14:41:56
Long DST - Started 03/04/2010 14:42:08
Long DST - FAIL 03/04/2010 14:42:12
SeaTools Test Code: 629F9FFC
Short DST - Started 03/04/2010 14:42:22
Short DST - FAIL 03/04/2010 14:42:27
SeaTools Test Code: 629F9FEC
Test Unavailable - Test Unavailable 03/04/2010 14:42:29
Long Generic - Started 03/04/2010 14:42:40
Long Generic - Started 03/04/2010 14:43:03
Bad LBA:          877     Unable to repair
Long Generic - FAIL 03/04/2010 14:43:23
SeaTools Test Code: 629F9FDC

[fzabkar]

The LBA failures in SeaTools suggest that the drive has a bad head or bad media. :-(

A SMART diagnostic such as HD Sentinel will probably show many reallocated sectors.

HD Tune's performance graph will probably show a lot of dips corresponding to retries.

http://www.hdtune.com/download.html

Can you upload a HD Tune SMART report and performance graph to a file sharing service? Depending on how bad it looks, you may be able to use multipass cloning software such as ddrescue to clone the good sections of your drive.

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Internal-ATA-and-Serial-ATA/Seagate-Barracuda-SATA-320-GB-Hard-Drive/m-...

You could also try a different orientation, ie horizontal as opposed to vertical.

Here is a thread which shows some curious results for a vertically mounted drive:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Internal-ATA-and-Serial-ATA/ST31000528AS-7200-12-1TB/m-p/42506

I don't think I can help much, if at all, with the above drive. However, I am happy to help you test your first drive. I am assuming it makes no noise at all, no buzz or vibration, in which case the fault is most likely an electronic one. You will need a digital multimeter (US$10).

[MAMBO04]

hmm ok, so do you think my new harddrive is irrecoverable?

okay i will check those programs out and then upload the diagnostics tonight for you to look at. 

thanks for the help, i appreciate it I emailed Seagate with my problems, they haven't replied yet but i emailed them a good 3 days ago, so let's see what they say.

Yeah, you are exactly right with the first HDD, ill check out the multimeters.

[fzabkar]

Your new drive appears very bad. :-(

Aside from expensive professional data recovery, your best bet would be to clone your drive using software that knows how to skip around bad patches in the media. DDrescue is one such tool, Media Tools Pro is another.