Seagate Website and Community Feedback

[Amit Kumar]

This year I bought a Seagate 500 GB. HDD on 7th March (serial no- NQMAANAB) from very beginning it started giving problems like weird sound, not being detected etc.  I thought that it could be because of some other issue/issues. Then I din't have any tool/software to test the HDD. I continued using the HDD till 1st Sep. 2008. On 1st sep. night Hard drive stopped working, next day I took it to  segate service centre Accel Front-line Services Limited at 12 lower rowdon street, kolkata. concerned person at the counter took the HDD(call id- SGTKOL090013820DW) and told me that they would replace it and it would take not less then 15 days as replacement would come straight from Seagate's Indian head office. But very next day, on 3rd sep at 22.56hrs. I received an sms that my HDD had been repaired. On 4th sep. I collected the HDD, But problems remain.... Just couple of days ago, I got a software (Hard Disk Sentinel) I installed that software and tested the HDD and I found startling result, it says  "Problems occurred during the spin up of the disk. This can be caused by the disk itself or huge power load (weak power supply).

At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further. I searched Seagate website for recommended solutions and tried everything ranging from testing it with another system to running it with different power-supply BUT TO NO AVAIL...... Now, I am sure that HDD itself is the source of problem. HDD test report also says that Health-wise my HDD scores 91%  I also tested my friends systems'  HDDs (they are 4-8 years old) all of them scored 100%. Now my question is DO I HAVE TO CONTINUE USING A FAULTY HDD? WHAT IF IT COMPLETELY BREAKS DOWN AFTER WARRANTY PERIOD? EVEN IF IT BREAKS DOWN WITH IN WARRANTY PERIOD , I WILL LOSE ENTIRE DATA. I am sure that this HDD was born with some congenital defects and it has shorter life-span. Now, I demand replacement of this faulty HDD else I have to buy a new one and I am sure that new HDD won't be a SEAGATE.

[CWD_XP]

I have the same problem.  I got a 320GB HDD this september.  It is working fine apparently.  By chance I was giving "Ashampoo HDD Control" a spin and I found out that this drive is going to fail. 

I checked the data and it was pretty convincing.  But then I thought perhaps Seagate will have their own proprietary tool which will read the data properly.  I tried SeaTools and it said my HDD flunked S.M.A.R.T. test and suggested to RMA it.

This week I am going to take it to 12 Rowdown St. and see what they have to say about this.

I would advise you to use SeaTools instead of any third party tools as there might be some proprietary fields which only SeaTools will be able to decipher.

My friend also had the same problem with SATA HDD.  Looks like the quality control deptt. isn't doing their job properly.

[Amit Kumar]

Yes, I tried the Seagate Sea Tools, but my HDD passed with 'dubious distinction'. When I tried short DST for the first time, it failed, I tried soon after the first test then it passed the test ! I tried short DST for several times, result is 50-50. If I do it 10 times, it would pass 5 times and would fail 5 times. I think, besides this Sea tools, we all should test Seagate HDD with some other neutral third party HDD testing software to get the actual status. Like I used Hard Disk Sentinel, it's a software developed by some Hungarian software development company, free version is available on the net.Reason I am telling this, I have no faith in sea tools after conducting Short DST. Moreover, Long DST  ang Long Generic test take ages to complete. Except short DST, my Seagate SATA HDD passed all other tests (of sea tools) with flying colours; still, my HDD makes weird noise. I am worried,  I am highly dissatisfied with Seagate.  what is moderator doing? Will real Seagate moderator please stand up and respond ?  

[AlanM]

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Amit Kumar wrote:
Will real Seagate moderator please stand up and respond ?  

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Sure, no problem.  What can I help you with?

[Amit Kumar]

Yes, You can help me!  I think, issues my hard drive has and Sea Tool's erratic behaviour during short DST are not unique. If you can, please throw some light on the matter as to why these things are happening. Moreover, it's evident that Hard Drive has problem from very beginning and service centre was not able to rectify it properly, so in this case, what would be the course of action? What should I do now? Will Seagate consider repairing it again or exchange it with a new one?  Please respond..

[AlanM]

I recommend posting your detailed problem and detailed system information in the SeaTools board and/or the Internal ATA/SATA board to see what other users can help with.

And you can contact Seagate Tech Support with detailed information.

[sk_online]

I had similar problems, just received a replacement for my faulty SATA HDD, after installation i immediately had some Windows freezes -  i checked the new (used) HDD using SeaTools 99 errors were found. The Windows RAID Tool showed already 18 faulty LBA blocks!!!

What are you doing SEAGATE?

[AskTheLeaf]

Be sure to use the repair option when you run SeaTools, it will replace and bad sectors and blocks on the hard drive. Once finished, you can test the drive again.