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seagate dead?

ineluki2

n00b
Joined
Jun 16, 2004
Messages
22
I've owned this 120 Sata Seagate 7200RPM for 7 months. It has not been booting consitently, and CHKDSK found and repaired a couple bad clusters before crashing out with "Not enough disk space to replace bad clusters". I've got around 12 gigs free still.

If it's dead, is there a way to get those valuable 100 gigs of stuff off that drive? I'll pay a bit if necessary. What are my options?
 
I'd start out by putting it in another computer and copying as much data off as you can - the longer you wait, the better the chances of it failing completely. I had a problem with a 40GB WD yesterday that wouldn't boot anymore, but I was able to use Norton Ghost to copy off all of the data on to another 40GB drive and I haven't had a problem with it since then. WD's data lifeguard program then said it was able to fix the bad sectors on the original drive, but I know better than to ever trust that drive again! Run the SeaTools utility on the drive and see what it tells you.
 
Seatools? I am not sure I've heard of that software. Also, I don't really have 100 gigs sitting around in one place, is it most reasonable in this situation to buy a new drive, install it, and then try and transfer all my data to the new one?

What are the recommendations on sending it back to seagate for repair (I think I still have warranty with them)? Shoudl I even trust the damn drive anymore?

This whole experience has taught me the value of RAID, anyone have suggestions for a RAID1 setup, or is that even necessary (external storage)?
 
If you send it back to Seagate, chances are you'll get a new or refurbished drive back. But, they won't keep your data for you. But, if you get your data off it, i'd send it back and get a new one from warranty.
 
a usb2/firewire drive isnt a bad idea for backing up... RAID1 is not idiot-proof... if a virus or something wipes out everything, you lost everything RAID1 or not
 
FLECOM said:
or something

Power Event
Bad RAM
System Timing
ect ect ect

the corruption gets mirrored
there is no substitute for backup

the HDD maps errors (new sectors that go bad) and replaces them with spares
generally thats a bad sign, likely new sectors go bad form an impact and headslap
where a pit is created in the platter and debris thrown up, which the head runs over and over again

the question now becomes what accessibility do you have?
transfering the data off, ideally from a parallel OS Install and looking sideways at it is easiest
which would require another HDD, and of course the space to transfer the data to
 
My options at the moment don't include enough space to transfer everything in one go. I don't have a problem with purchasing a new drive, new OS install, and dumping everything over, though. Really this seems like my only option. Now, do I trust seagate again? I researched this drive 7 months ago to be sure I wasn't going to have this kind of problem, and boom. Should I chalk this incident up to random occurrence?

I'm also wary about refurbished stuff from anyone, I seem to always have bad luck with it. Is this an unrealistic fear?

Lastly, any recommendations on USB2 portable drives? Might as well look at top of the line stuff and max my hardware potential.

Seriously, you guys are too helpful. Much, much appreciated.
 
As far as trusting Seagate, I'd go for it.

I have a Seagate 80GB Drive in one of my server machines and it's been running great for a long time. My current SATA 120GB runs great also, i've also had only good experiences with any RMA requests and exchanges.

At work, we've had 30 Maxtor hard drives come back in the past 2 months. Needless to say, we no longer carry or sell Maxtor drives.
 
what you buy is rarely as important as who you buy from in HDDs
Which Brand of Hard Drive is Most Reliable? @ SR FAQ
Proper Handling Guide @ Seagate

Seagate make reliable HDDs and I see fewer complaints about them then most others
but all that really means is that others are more common in all likelyhood, or they have a better supply chain
dont trust a new HDD till a few months goes buy for it to develop shipping damage
and be very careful with any HDD you have, treat it like Nitro and your far less likely to be left high and dry
 
For your bad sector problem, I suggest downloading the Ulltimate Boot CD... I know it has a seagate-specific hard drive tool on it which can probably find and "fix" (make inaccessible) your bad-sectors.

Seagate in general is a decent brand. I'm currently working at a datacenter where we use all kinds of brands, and we have a lot of seagate hard drives which have lasted in a server environment for years at a time. Of course, as IBM showed us, failure rates vary by drive model ;)
 
Hypothesis: Could my frequent cellphone use near my computer cause actual damage to my SATA HD?
 
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