Is the Seagate 7200.11 the new "deathstar?

Vegetarian · 1 Nov 2008 at 13:30

After having 2 of my 7200.11's die on me with no warning in the space of 2 weeks... there seems to be a higher than normal failure rate emoung forum users for the Seagate drive!

My first drive failed after PC rebooted for no reason - it spun up, but was not seen by bios. Second drive that failed was its replacement that was only 2 weeks old... it died in same way.

Could this be the new IBM deathstar?

Have a read thru other forums

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=22-148-288&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=100&SelectedRating=1&PurchaseMark=&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=4

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=3283

alex24 · 1 Nov 2008 at 15:59

Seems so. My 7200.11 died last week. Fortunately I backed up the important stuff! I plan to sell the replacement after it's RMA'd.

What sort of problem did you have? Mine just died after a restart with no warning. Seems like a problem on the drive controller as opposed to a mechanical fault.

Vegetarian · 1 Nov 2008 at 17:04

My 2 drives died the same way!

I took controller card from my other "alive" 7200.11 and drive was then scene, however the drive was still dead.

I think its something in the controller card going - but once it goes it takes out the drive as well

Firegod · 1 Nov 2008 at 20:01

Hmmm maybes just unlucky? My 250Gb 7200.10 is going strong still and my 500GB 7200.11 is also going fine. I actually might just be lucky, I've never had a HDD break or die in my PC ever.

Perhaps something else is causing the HDD's to die in your PC. Heat? Or perhaps something electrical killing the HDD? (If that's possible, such as an old PSU).

alex24 · 1 Nov 2008 at 21:21

HDDs in my case were kept super cool, so I know heat wasn't the issue. I have a Corsair HX620, it's always been very reliable, and they have a good reputation. Plus, my other hard drive has been fine!

I'm sure its not a coincidence.

Vegetarian · 1 Nov 2008 at 22:41

Same as above - my over hard disk has been fine in my Antec fusion. Ive seen same reboot death on other forums with the 7200.11.

Firegod · 2 Nov 2008 at 10:58

alexhull24 said:
HDDs in my case were kept super cool, so I know heat wasn't the issue. I have a Corsair HX620, it's always been very reliable, and they have a good reputation. Plus, my other hard drive has been fine!

I'm sure its not a coincidence.

Hi mate

I wasn't trying to be awkward, just in case you thought I was being. Just thinking if it was something else that's all.

Obviouslyi it's not though from what you've just said.

celliott · 2 Nov 2008 at 11:55

As per the other thread, I totally agree with this. The 7200.11 drives are plain awful. They are noisy and just dont last.

We probably get about 10 PC's back every week with dead 7200.11's in. We have even had some die whilst installing windows!

It's definatley not heat, 120mm fan over the drives and all systems have decent FSP PSU's.

krooton · 2 Nov 2008 at 12:24

This doesn't bolster my confidence in the new 750GB 7200.11 I got

How long on average is it taking for these deaths to occur?

gumbald · 2 Nov 2008 at 13:05

I've had one a few months with no problems, just ordered another to put in my NAS as a pair though, not filled with confidence here either...

lay-z-boy · 2 Nov 2008 at 13:43

Lost 3 500gb 7200.11's over the past 4 weeks, 2 just randomly died the other made circular saw noises and took me a while to work out it was the hard drive making the noise, by then it was too late and it had broken.

First two were backup drives, so no loss there and the third was part of a raid array that I only had a partial backup of, so I lost a huge amount of data.

Utterly terrible drives, imo. I've now moved nearly ever drive over to western digital blacks/re3's and will be moving to a raid 6 array for storage after this nasty experience is over and done with.

Isn't the first time either, lost a 120gb 7200 2.5" and a pair of 200gb 7200 2.5" to seagate too. Have yet to have any real problems with WD/maxtor/samsung.

EsaT · 2 Nov 2008 at 13:46

Multiple failures of identical drives (or ones fro msame production lots/bought at same time) could be explained by mishandling in some part of transport chain but then again non-operating drives with heads parked should withstand surprisingly much when correctly packaged.

On the other hand Seagate bought Maxtor so maybe they're now using Maxtor's factories.
Maxtor in PC of one neighbour died quite similarly, it was still spinning but electrically dead, occasionally after reset BIOS recognized it but that was as far as it went.
(cousin got once IIRC 200GB Maxtor, it lasted only couple months like its replacement which died similarly as first... after that he got WD)

krooton said:
How long on average is it taking for these deaths to occur?

At least any hidden manufacturing defects should show themselves in first weeks/month.
You could connect HDD to PC without taking it directly into use and try running heavier HDD testing tools many times in first few days.
Also cousin (who works in educational institute) has found HDD cloning tools to be excellent for "breaking" such ready to fail drives.

WotDa · 2 Nov 2008 at 13:53

*Crosses fingers* I have a Raid 0 array with two 320Gb 7200.11's! :eek:

MagicBoy · 2 Nov 2008 at 13:58

Hmm. Not good.

I've got a couple of the Maxtor DiamondMax 22 500GB's (basically a 7200.11 with 3 year warranty) and one of them keeps turning itself off intermittently. Time for a couple of new drives methinks...

Vegetarian · 2 Nov 2008 at 14:37

One Seagate 7200.11 lasted 5 months before reboot of death

Another 7200.11 died after 2 weeks with reboot of death

Last night my 3rd 7200.11 had a reboot of almost death - managed to get it working again.

My 4th 7200.11 has been working flawlessly since Dec 07 so is my oldest Seagate. It has alwas been quieter than my other 3 7200.11's. The print out on the drive also looks different than the other 3.

All have been running off the same pc - which also uses a samsung and maxtor drive thats remained rock solid!

Rroff · 2 Nov 2008 at 14:47

Doesn't sound at all good :| guess I'll be sticking with the 7200.10 for awhile... I just had my first seagate in around 15 years die on me... and guess what its a 7200.11 - mine started making "gravelly" noises when acessed tho then just stopped showing up in th BIOS. Which sounds like 2 different problems co-inciding.

Vegetarian · 2 Nov 2008 at 14:57

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=2388

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=2587

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=1867

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=2409

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=2206

Scottland · 2 Nov 2008 at 15:05

Just replaced a Samsung (having had it fail twice in ~6 weeks) for one of these. Fingers crossed

Firegod · 2 Nov 2008 at 15:29

celliott said:
...They are noisy and just dont last...

Hmmm my two are totally silent? :confused:

lay-z-boy · 2 Nov 2008 at 15:35

Firegod said:
Hmmm my two are totally silent?

Some are silent others are loud enough to give hard drives from the 1-10gb era a run for their money.