SeaTools

[techguy99]

Anyone run into the following error message on a Windows 7 Installation?   Version 1204 but earlier versions give same error.

FATAL ERROR: DEVICE DISCOVERY

Argument 'Length' must be greater or equal to zero.

System.String Mid(System.String.INt32,INt32)

I have to respond 'OK' to this and then the program dies.   Uninstalling and re-installing program does not help.

I have multiple Windows 7 installations, both 32-bit and 64-bit and some have this problem and others don't.  I've even run into it with a freshly installed operating system image with all updates, including SP1.

I can't find a pattern that might bring this on.

Thanks.  

[mikeeuropa]

Did you get a solution to this?  I have exactly the same error having just installed on Win XP SP3.

[tampapoet]

Hey.  I'm getting the exact same problem on Windows XP SP3.  I have a RAID setup, an eSATA card, and a mix of Seagate and WD Drives.  I'm trying to check a 1.5tb drive for errors.

Thanks!

[sycotonal]

Great support around here.  Simple google search reveals a TON of people having this issue, and yet Seagate has done nothing about it.  Guess this confirms that their support is just as bad as their drive reliability these days.  Guess I'll stick to other brands.

[AlanM]

Really sorry about that.

Is it possible to try SeaTools for DOS, the bootable version? Does it work better?

[AlanM]

Oh, by the way, here is the how-to for SeaTools for DOS:

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/201271en

[mikeeuropa]

Well it works so I guess by defintion that is better than something that doesn't.  But we're meant to be going forward with technology.  While a bootable DOS version is great if you can't get your system to boot into your OS it's hardly user friendly and convenient for those that can.

[AlanM]

Well, that is certainly true. Again, I'm sorry about that.

Would you be willing to speak to a Seagate technician or two about this?

[HVTN]

Well, there are now (at least) THREE OPEN THREADS on this topic WITH NO VALID SOLUTION or useful workaround.  Maybe more ... there are certainly lots on other forums...  I aimed the others here, as this one had a workaround for internal disks at least.

However for the DOS/ISO please note the following from the tutuorial website for that product:

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/20​1271en

This utility will not detect external drives. Please use SeaTools for Windows to test external drives.

So, Catch-22, if you have an external drive making clicking sounds like I do, then that avenue is useless...

Oh, yeah, I did try it on two different systems, one XP SP3 on Intel (older single core), and the other Win 7 SP1 x64 on AMD (newer quad core).  Same failure both ways.

Hmmm...  Seems we aren't allowed to upload two screenscrapes.  Well, the first one says:

SCSI: Scanning for supported drivs.  Please wait...

It runs for a few seconds, then pops up the popular error as described in the initial post, attached.  After you hit OK, it runs a couple seconds more then just goes away. 

You may have a process left running called stxcon.exe which Process Explorer says was invoked as:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Seagate\SeaTools for Windows\stxcon.exe" -i -b 4096 -tb 1 -legacyconsole /v 2 /s 512

[Mulox]

I am having the same exact error on a Win7 SP1 64-bit machine.  Wow... scanning the threads it seems various forms of the same bug has been around since 2007!!  So 5 years and the Developers still can't get it right??  

I saw some notes about turning off ram disk and any virtual drive mounts, but those don't fix the issue for me (even if this solves it for some folks, you may want to think about putting this in your readme file, help notes, and include in your online tutorials!)