Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drives failing

[amdalex]

Well it passed all the short tests.

[shadowpr]

This article suggests that a recall MIGHT be a consideration for Seagate: http://www.computerworld.com/action/...=kc_top%20from

As of now, there has been no other change on their site, or forums.

[pam123]

Originally Posted by phigdon I see, shinny brick to be used at the owners discretion AKA shotgun target. got it. well I figured the heck with it and just ordered a new WD 1T drive from the egg. a cloning I will go...

I've just done the same and I'm thinking Seagate had better go for a recall.

[glc]

Seagate has just lost me as both a customer and a recommender indefinitely. All these issues coincide with Seagate's reduction in warranty periods on a lot of drives and WD's expansion of their 5 year warranty.

[Patch]

From a 9/08 thread here:

Originally Posted by Patch Thanks for the input. Further research is steering me away from 7200.11's. With success comes expansion. New manufacturing facilities (Thailand is now the third country these are manufactured in). Low prices. Quality control suffers. Apparently, drives made in the original 2 countries are still awesome, but quality control in Thailand blows. With that in mind, the price of the 1.5TB scares me a bit. I hate returning things. Think I'll go for this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136284

Whew! Feel like I dodged a bullet.

[pam123]

Seagate's new firmware updates are now posted : http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/cr...p?DocId=207951

I won't try them till I get the new drive from newegg to use for my back ups .

[rjfvillarosa]

Originally Posted by glc Seagate has just lost me as both a customer and a recommender indefinitely. All these issues coincide with Seagate's reduction in warranty periods on a lot of drives and WD's expansion of their 5 year warranty.

From my customers point of view I have seen all makes of different harddrives fail over the years, from a personal point of view I don't recall a single drive ever failing on me. BUT. This episode has soured me towards Seagate harddrives, I will have to see a few years worth of stability and reliability before I will go back to them.
I have just bought five WD 160's, three went straight into machines as OEM replacements for Seagates. Worked straight out of the box, good price and a good warranty, way to go WD, sorry Seagate but for now you are in the bin.

[phigdon]

Originally Posted by pam123 Seagate's new firmware updates are now posted : http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/cr...p?DocId=207951 I won't try them till I get the new drive from newegg to use for my back ups .

thanks Pam but I will do as you are and wait for the new WD to get cloned over.

[phigdon]

Originally Posted by glc Seagate has just lost me as both a customer and a recommender indefinitely. All these issues coincide with Seagate's reduction in warranty periods on a lot of drives and WD's expansion of their 5 year warranty.

I have been a computer enthusiast since the days of the Commodore 64 and the Apple IIe and have used every brand of HDD on the market, with the exception of Hitachi. I have only had one Maxtor fail in all that time, but I agree with you. It will be some time before I switch away from WD.

[shadowpr]

After reading a few hundred more posts at Seagate forums, it seems this firmware is a fix for the problem, and it IS working. It hasn't bricked any drives, and there have been successes with 500gb, 750gb, and 1tb drives.

The es2 drives also have a new firmware, but that requires notifying Seagate for them to send it to you directly.

There are also a few reports of people with bricked drives being able to bring their drive back to life with this new firmware. The key to get this to work is to be able to see the drive in bios. If you can, then you can upgrade the firmware. If not, some have had success by trying the drive in a different computer and then having the bios see the bricked drive.

I will updating my firmware in a few hours. Will post about my experience. I will try to keep the drive in my external enclosure as well.

[glc]

What's going on with the 1.5 TB's?

[shadowpr]

The firmware update for the 1.5tb drives is still in validation: http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/cr...p?DocId=207957

I just flashed my 1tb drive. It was painless. I just check device manager and the new firmware is recognized.

As a side note, I left my drive in the external enclosure and it didn't have any problem. When it said to power down the drive and turned off the computer I just turned the external off and then turned everything back on.

I'll still be reading the seagate forums to make sure they don't change this firmware, so I'll keep everyone updated.

[shadowpr]

Thread about bricked drives coming back to life after firmware update: http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/...thread.id=6597

There were a very few posts about the drives failing the smart test. I plan on running seatools during my next reboot.

[phigdon]

i just finished cloning over to the new WD drive and can see an improvement in boot speed as well as operation speed. I'll try the firmware later today.

[amdalex]

I updated the firmware on my 500gb Seagate with no issues, the fitness is still 64% but I'll leave it alone for now.

[glc]

I just flashed my 750, no problems. Gonna go flash the stepdaughter's 500 tonight, I'm gonna save an image to her external first just in case. Tomorrow I'm gonna go do the son in law's 500 and 1T.

[freakitchen]

Time to update my only 7200.11 drive, a 1TB model. Appreciate you passing on your research on this shadow

[amdalex]

Uh oh, now my drive fails the DST. Is there a way I can get my money back or do I have to RMA for another Seagate?

[shadowpr]

Originally Posted by amdalex Uh oh, now my drive fails the DST. Is there a way I can get my money back or do I have to RMA for another Seagate?

If it fails seatools, then it's not the issue that this thread is talking about.

If it's a new drive (30 days) then you could probably return it to newegg, or to whoever you bought it from.

If it's older than that, then you will have to contact seagate and start the rma process.

[pam123]

My new backup drive gets here tomorrow I'll report on what happens over the weekend.,

[jdeb]

I just received my third phone call in past week. Looks like WD is getting my business now. Reminds me of one other manufacture we tend to recommend.

[glc]

The 500 gb update went smoothly. 2 down, 2 to go.

[shadowpr]

Originally Posted by jdeb I just received my third phone call in past week. Looks like WD is getting my business now. Reminds me of one other manufacture we tend to recommend.

If you have customers with bruicked drives, I would suggest you try the fix I listed above. Some bricked drives are coming back to life.

If you manage to do that, your costomers will love you.

[tmathews]

Updated my ST3500320AS SD15 (China) to SD1A, no problems (before or after). The update was straightforward and easy.

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by shadowpr If you have customers with bruicked drives, I would suggest you try the fix I listed above. Some bricked drives are coming back to life. If you manage to do that, your costomers will love you.

let you know after the weekend, got two of three and the third is coming tomorrow. Thankfully all three backed up their systems... that is a first.

[pam123]

My WD drive just got delivered.

It should take me this weekend to get everything in order so I'll let everyone know what happened by Monday/Tuesday.

[phigdon]

I am finishing up putting the 500 in my NAS drive and going to 1T on it, no issues with the WD.

[glc]

4 flashes, 4 successes. I'm quitting while I'm ahead!

[pam123]

That it works is good to hear.

My replacement back up drive (WD) arrived around 4:00 PM but I won't be able to start till sometime next week (drat!) since I want my data backed up first.
Also it seems the great reviews about the latest Vantec may have been in error, Support is getting back to me by Tuesday but it looks like the enclosure had a very brief life.

[shadowpr]

Last I checked, they have the updates ready for most dives.

I have lost my place on the threads I was reading, so i'm not sure if there is any new info.