Where can I return Seagate drives to in Durban?

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nihilist

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I have 2x Seagate drives in warranty, one has completely failed, the other is on it's way out rapidly, I'm going to 'assist' it by writing random data to it in a loop until Reallocate Sector Count passes the threshold, since it's busy failing.

I bought them from 2 different suppliers but AFAIK it was possible to just return them somewhere and pick up new ones?

Or am I dreaming?
 
I purchased a 2TB Seagate a few weeks as well, same problem, numerous bad sectors and growing by the hour. What model Seagates are they?
 
I thought Seagates never fail ;)

@OP, maybe return them to where you bought them from?
 
kayvee said:
I thought Seagates never fail ;)

@OP, maybe return them to where you bought them from?
Click to expand...

Well yes, but it would just be easier to take them to one place and do both at once, as I have a RAID10 to build and I've already wasted enough time.

It's no biggie, would just be nicer.
 
South_Bit said:
I purchased a 2TB Seagate a few weeks as well, same problem, numerous bad sectors and growing by the hour. What model Seagates are they?
Click to expand...

2x ST31000528AS, though not both in the same machine.

Code: 
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 family
Device Model:     [B]ST31000528AS[/B]
Serial Number:    #######
Firmware Version: [B]CC38[/B]
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  ATA-8-ACS revision 4
Local Time is:    Wed Apr 13 12:05:16 2011 SAST

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   106   097   006    Pre-fail  Always       -       68690511
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   094   094   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       116
[B]  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   040   040   036    Pre-fail  Always       -       2485[/B]
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   069   060   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       8169533
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   090   090   000    Old_age   Always       -       8842
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       59
183 Runtime_Bad_Block       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
184 End-to-End_Error        0x0032   100   100   099    Old_age   Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   064   058   045    Old_age   Always       -       36 (Lifetime Min/Max 28/38)
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   036   042   000    Old_age   Always       -       36 (0 21 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   046   018   000    Old_age   Always       -       68690511
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       151754079478533
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       2174268246
242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       2562194699

The other one I don't have data for as it's unplugged, it's the same model however. 3600 reallocated sectors. :D Didn't lose any data though, even though I had backups, the data on the drive was fine. But it would hang the controller and lock up, BIOS would randomly not see it etc; The sectors were remapped during write operations and the data was still good, so at least the drive are quite tolerant and have counter measures.

One RSC reaches 36 (threshold, not the number of remapped sectors) then it's classed as FAILED by Seatools and the SMART specifications. What's your drive sitting at?
 
nihilist said:
...I'm going to 'assist' it by writing random data to it in a loop until Reallocate Sector Count passes the threshold, since it's busy failing.
Click to expand...

Very good idea.

I sent mine back, pointing out to them that it is *in the process* of failing and they (Seagate distributors?) returned it to me saying that there is *nothing* wrong with it. They used "Seagate's tools" to test it. Whoopee.

Anyway, my "Reallocated Sector Count" is still rising by roughly 1 sector per week.

Screenshot-500%20GB%20Hard%20Disk%20%28ATA%20ST3500418AS%29%20%E2%80%93%20SMART%20Data.png
 
Last edited:
nihilist said:
One RSC reaches 36 (threshold, not the number of remapped sectors) then it's classed as FAILED by Seatools and the SMART specifications. What's your drive sitting at?
Click to expand...

Mine's at 28 right now, but will pass 36 very soon.

kayvee said:
I thought Seagates never fail ;)
Click to expand...

Remember that advert that said every time you snap your fingers a child in Africa dies of starvation? I think a Seagate advert of similar tone should be made. Every time you click your mouse, somewhere in the world a Seagate drive dies.
 
Well I have 2 new disks, 2x 1TB Seagate ST31000524AS's and so far, so good.
 
adrianx said:
Screenshot-500%20GB%20Hard%20Disk%20%28ATA%20ST3500418AS%29%20%E2%80%93%20SMART%20Data.png
Click to expand...

Your drive will be oaky for a while, you have 91 bad sectors, the threshold is 36 and current value is 91, so you've got a long way to go.

Keep an eye on it.

I'd reccomend leaving it over a weekend running badblocks. Do a 3 pass full read/write destructive test and keep an eye on the values. That should kill your drive if it's on its way out ;) I also do that with new important drives before I load them into my Linux fileserver.

<rant>
You know, every time I use Gnome Disk Uility, it makes me wonder WTF Windows doesn't have something like this built in! I know it does to an extent with Disk Management, but not showing SMART and Temps is just plain retarded. This should be mandatory on modern systems and especially servers.
</rant>
 
Last edited:
nihilist said:
Well I have 2 new disks, 2x 1TB Seagate ST31000524AS's and so far, so good.
Click to expand...

It was one of those that failed on me after exactly a month after purchase. Drive no longer spins up and is not detected.
I also bought two. Of course it would be the one I used for the system drive that fails.
 
thisgeek said:
It was one of those that failed on me after exactly a month after purchase. Drive no longer spins up and is not detected.
I also bought two. Of course it would be the one I used for the system drive that fails.
Click to expand...

:|

A part of me is wondering if Seagate have lost their quality, I have/had/used/installed many, many of their 40 and 80GB's and very rare failures there, starting to wonder if the whole MB/$ race has made them cut corners.

I just built a new PC and am using RAID1 with my Asus P8P67M-PRO but finding that DISK IO lags my PC way too much, updating Intel RST helped a lot but still doesn't feel quite right. I may just end up killing the RAID1 array and going 'vanilla' .. though I may try Windows 7's own drive mirroring, I recall getting fairly good speed when I did a RAID 5 array of 3x old 80GB disks.
 
thisgeek said:
It was one of those that failed on me after exactly a month after purchase. Drive no longer spins up and is not detected.
I also bought two. Of course it would be the one I used for the system drive that fails.
Click to expand...

If it does not even spin up then it most likely means there is an issue with PCB, often caused by bad power that has damaged it, ie. bad quality power supply, surge etc.
 
South_Bit said:
If it does not even spin up then it most likely means there is an issue with PCB, often caused by bad power that has damaged it, ie. bad quality power supply, surge etc.
Click to expand...

's why I buy high end Antec PSUs and make sure I have enough juice ;)
 
South_Bit said:
If it does not even spin up then it most likely means there is an issue with PCB, often caused by bad power that has damaged it, ie. bad quality power supply, surge etc.
Click to expand...

Considering I have 4 seagate drives in my rig, all powered from a very expensive 700W Antec PSU, I doubt that that is the issue.
And no, there's nothing wrong with the PCB. I suspect the motor that drives the platter has an issue because you can hear a soft - almost beeping - noise as the drive tries to spin up the platters. In fact, if I rock the drive just so and immediately apply power, the drive spins up and works perfectly until it is shut down again.
 
thisgeek said:
Considering I have 4 seagate drives in my rig, all powered from a very expensive 700W Antec PSU, I doubt that that is the issue.
And no, there's nothing wrong with the PCB. I suspect the motor that drives the platter has an issue because you can hear a soft - almost beeping - noise as the drive tries to spin up the platters. In fact, if I rock the drive just so and immediately apply power, the drive spins up and works perfectly until it is shut down again.
Click to expand...

Hence me putting my most likely and often words in italics, as that is the most common failure if a HDD does nothing, does not even spin up. You didn't provide any more info so I was saying 'in most cases'. Yes, the beeping or buzzing you hear is the motor trying to spin up but failing. Seagate spindle motor assemblies are notoriously fragile.
 
thisgeek said:
I suspect the motor that drives the platter has an issue because you can hear a soft - almost beeping - noise as the drive tries to spin up the platters. In fact, if I rock the drive just so and immediately apply power, the drive spins up and works perfectly until it is shut down again.
Click to expand...

Here are some sound clips to compare to, one from a Seagate and one from a WD, both with stuck/jammed spindle motors. Apologies for the Seagate clip, the recording volume was very low.
Seagate
WD
 
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