Seagate Drive Knackered?

visibleman · 21 Apr 2009 at 20:20

Hi all,
The last month or so i've noticed my system to be randomly freezing, for around 5 minutes at a time. I've whittled it down to an old Seagate sata drive and i've noticed that if i unplug the sata cable (or USB or eSata if used in a Akasa external caddy) then the system springs back to life. Seatools and other hard drive tests report the drive to be ok and i've only heard the drive 'clunk'/click a few times, it's certainly not continuous.

Am i right i think the drives probably on it's way out and to get it sent back to Seagate?

cheers

Monkeynut · 21 Apr 2009 at 21:53

Get the data off ASAP. What model is the drive?

visibleman · 24 Apr 2009 at 13:14

Luckily this drive was moved to an external caddy for backups (have 2 other drives for backups as well, so this drive is not overally important) a few months back, but the drive (ST3250823AS) will happily transfer data for 5 minutes or so before it stops and freezes the system, and it has yet to die (noticed this problem around xmas time) or show any signs of corrupt data or anything.

Also what's the situation with sending this back - do Seagate test drives before sending out a replacement?

Speed · 25 Apr 2009 at 13:57

Yes, run the latest version of Seatools from DOS, it will tell you if there is anything wrong with the drive. Then use the info you get from it (error codes etc) to get yourself an RMA issued.

Make sure to run both a Short and a Full Test.

visibleman · 25 Apr 2009 at 15:13

I've tried to use an older version and newer version of the Seatools for DOS but they both can't detect any of the drives in my system - although i have a feeling it's because i have two raid 0 setups.

But i have ran the windows version (plus scandisk/chkdsk etc) which reported no errors, which is why im questioning whether the drive is on it's way out (Which is what it's looking like) or whether it could be a problem with my system in general.

Monkeynut · 25 Apr 2009 at 15:26

Can you try it in another PC?

Speed · 25 Apr 2009 at 15:48

visibleman said:
I've tried to use an older version and newer version of the Seatools for DOS but they both can't detect any of the drives in my system - although i have a feeling it's because i have two raid 0 setups.

But i have ran the windows version (plus scandisk/chkdsk etc) which reported no errors, which is why im questioning whether the drive is on it's way out (Which is what it's looking like) or whether it could be a problem with my system in general.

Well I would use the newest version of seatools, unplug all other drives. Or like suggested, if you want to be on the safe side, use another system and just have that one drive plugged in.