Seagate Desk external HDD failure???

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Hey guys...

I really hope this is not happening :(

About 3 days ago my 1TB Seagate desk external Harddrive started making these constant tick tick tick sounds. Now all of a sudden when trying to copy stuff to my internal HDD from the external the transfer speed is like 1mb per sec in place of the usual 30Mb P/S.

The sounds it is making suggests head damage according to samples on other websites. The biggest problem is that 950GB is used, and I will never be able to get some of the stuff on there again :cry:

It is still on warranty (I hope), so I guess I should take it back (bought at a very good local PC shop)? Or is there some software I can test it with first, maybe my PC just had a sudden moment of slowness?

Thanx
 
Grouter said:
Seatools for windows.

Good Luck.
Click to expand...

Thanx man, I installed the Seagate manager and ran their drive test. I took about 2 mins and it said "you drive is functioning normally". But during the whole test it made those ticking sounds.

Maybe it is a faulty sector? And maybe the test utility doesn't test all sectors, if it does I think it would take much longer?

EDIT: Oh I see, I should run a long drive self test or one of those full diagnostic tests. Ok that's gonna take a few hours, so I'll tell you guys what it said when it's finished.
 
Last edited:
Seagate become worse and worse. Not sure there is reason to buy their drives.
I had a problem with their Barracuda.11 series and Sickgate has no even official forum! And nobody helped with my problem (RAID related). Avoid this company.
 
Have heard that on .11 Barracuda the Log get's Full or Corrupted and drive enters a Data Protect Mode ... Which can be fixed and an Firmware update applied on it ...
Not 100% Sure tough ...
 
Not only this problem. My two Barra****as didn't work in RAID, though there is no any special requirement for disk to work in RAID. I think it's some firmware restriction to sell their "enterprise" line. \m/ \m/
 
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931&NewLang=en

Firmware Updates for Seagate Products [207931]

Seagate products are run by firmware. Having the latest firmware can improve performance and or reliability of your product. Seagate recommends applying new firmware to enhance the performance and or reliability of your drive.
Like any software, firmware is improved over time and problems are also fixed. Every drive family has a couple of firmware releases during the life of the product. Please check in regularly to determine if new firmware is available for your drive.

As new firmware becomes available for other products we will make note of it here. At this time, we have firmware available for Barracuda 7200.11, Barracuda ES.2 (SATA) and DiamondMax 22 drive families.
If newer firmware is available for your drive, it will reflect the improvements we have engineered for the latest manufacturing. Firmware for legacy products will be the final release from manufacturing. Please note that Seagate does not offer details about specific firmware.

Until recently, firmware updates for typical desktop and laptop computers were difficult and somewhat risky. This situation, in part, was based on a lack of friendly firmware download tools and operating system limitations. This situation has improved and Seagate now offers firmware updates as a routine matter for the general support of your Seagate drive.

If you are troubleshooting a system or OS problem, you should not consider firmware updates until after exploring more typical troubleshooting steps like file system error checking and anti-virus scanning.
Please use the following links and instructions below to determine if firmware is available for your product. If firmware is available, we recommend that you make a back up before running the actual update and that you read and follow all instructions, cautions and warnings that may be displayed.
 
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/news.jsp?DocId=206091&Hilite=

Does my drive need a firmware update? [206091]

The short answer is: Firmware updates are not necessary for most users.
Many thousands of drives enter the market with any given version of firmware in common.

Thousands of drives have the same firmware version when they are sold.
External, SATA, and ATA drives that are used in PCs and for personal storage pass through extensive testing before they leave the factory. Therefore, they are not designed for firmware updates in the field.

Firmware updates

Performing a firmware update can be risky by itself even in the best of situations. For example, a power outage during a firmware update carries a very good possibility of ruining the drive. External, Serial ATA, and ATA drives are not designed for field firmware updates by end users.

Very often, system or device driver issues (see here for more information on drivers) cause symptoms that are incorrectly called "firmware problems."

What is firmware?

Firmware is defined as a computer program that is hard-coded into the hard drive and contains its basic operational storage programming. Another way to think of it is that firmware is a software middleman that allows your hardware to talk to software (i.e., Windows operating systems, etc). For a hard drive, firmware is a program that governs the behavior and factory settings, even the identity, of that drive. Any drive that comes out of the factory and is in use in a computer or server has firmware installed on it from the factory.
 
I would suggest you stop using that drive now unless you know what you are doing. I think HTC here on the forums can maybe help you out.
 
ponder: thanks for help! Unfortunately, now I'm using my drives separately as a normal drives - in this mode there is no problem.

BigBeag: I read it 10 times, digging Seagate's forum, but no any official answer were given - I guess Seagate is just liars.
 
Vincent_Thorn said:
ponder: thanks for help! Unfortunately, now I'm using my drives separately as a normal drives - in this mode there is no problem.

BigBeag: I read it 10 times, digging Seagate's forum, but no any official answer were given - I guess Seagate is just liars.
Click to expand...

:confused:
Thought it might, be usefull .. didn't bother searching further...

Seems they just put up a Notification to update the Firmware...

Don't think i'm going to try and Update the Firmware on my 1TB Seagate .11
When it is full of all my Personal storage ... Hope the drive keeps working touch wood...

Will be looking into getting an Additional Drive as a Backup ....

Seems all Seagate HDD's are suffering reliability problems... The main reason i only buy Seagate... :confused:
 
Yeah, Backups

I'll second that, but the meaning of backups extend to having the same data on 2 seperate locations...
 
Sounds like the standard 7200.11 firmware error. I can fix this error, if you want help PM me.
 
Hey guys!

Sorry for taking AGES to get back to you. I ran a Long Generic test and a Short Drive Self Test with Seatools and both tests passed:confused:

I then downloaded crystal Disk Mark 2.2. When I test sequential read/write speed I get 32Mb/s read and 25Mb/s write. But when I run the 4Kb random I get 0.4 Mb/s read and 1Mb/s write! What's up with that?

I don't know anymore, maybe I'm just paranoid, I mean this is like 950Gb of data I can lose, and no I don't have cash for another 1Tb to back my stuff up.
 
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