Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Chalenge on November 14, 2009, 01:20:38 AM
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I discovered that my 'primary' Windows partition on my new pit is one of those defective Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000333AS drives that locks up after X number of power cycles. My father bought his the same day as I bought this one and since his failed today I know mine wont be far behind it. I read up on the drive and there is supposed to be a firmware update that will fix the drive. My question is... can that be trusted or is this just a matter of time either way?
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I discovered that my 'primary' Windows partition on my new pit is one of those defective Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000333AS drives that locks up after X number of power cycles. My father bought his the same day as I bought this one and since his failed today I know mine wont be far behind it. I read up on the drive and there is supposed to be a firmware update that will fix the drive. My question is... can that be trusted or is this just a matter of time either way?
Well crap, I hope not. I just bought one of those last night since my old drive crapped out. I would be pissed if this one died too that soon. Let me know if you find out anything.
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I have no idea if it can be trusted. What I would do is back up all your important data immediately and buy a second drive.
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Darn sure wouldn't turn the sucker off!
:D
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Back up your data. I've relied on WD through experience and I haven't had a HD failure in 5 years after going exclusively WD. Before that I had Maxtors, Seagates and an IBM blow on me.
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When it comes to favorite HD brands, a lot is personal experience and a little luck. In 13 years I've had 2 WD, 1 Samsung, and 1 Deathstar fail. Every Maxtor or Seagate drive I've ever owned still is operational, going back to a 1.6gb Maxtor circa 1996. Some running in linux servers, others have been given as hand me downs. A few collecting dust.
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I've had at least a half dozen each of Seagates and WD's plus a couple of IBM's. The only one's that I've had a problem with were two of the WD's which isn't a great batting average but those were both older IDE drives.
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theres not a single model of any brand of any product ever made that you couldnt find a certain percentage of people who will tell you they had problems with it............
are some specifice products notoriously bad...... sure
but for the most part its just luck of the draw...........
as a rule its always best to have your data backed up completely to at least 1 alternate source if not more
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The defect in Seagate Barracuda drives that I am aware of (not sure if it is the same for your model) was a software error in the firmware that bombed after a set number of internal hardware warnings. A counter didn't roll over properly and that would brick the drive. Supposedly fixing the software error via a firmware update will prevent this from happening.
I haven't had the courage to flash my drive though. Obviously you should do a complete backup first. The Seagate web page has instructions on how to check if your drive has the problem and how to fix it. You have to make sure you get the proper firmware for your particular model and part #. Unfortunately the DriveDetect.exe software they supply doesn't give the part #, you have to physically look at the drive. It's critical you follow all the Seagate instructions so you know you have the proper firmware; otherwise your drive will be toast.
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It odd that you say this. Upon doing some trial and error attempt for my current PC situation, (blue screen o death) I have concluded that my hard drive is fubar. If I unplug it I can actually get my PC to read the OS disk for a reinstall. Of course theirs no where to put it.
So I pull the hard drive from my XPS410. I look at the name...Seagate. Its the Barracuda 7200.10. I thought to myself, OK lasted three yrs, not bad for an electronic component. So I go to look at the specs on NewEgg to see how much for the same or better. Wow. I was expecting cost to be a lot more. So I started looking at a 1 terabyte upgrade (Currently have 250gb). Seems to me that 1t+ have been quite unreliable from the customer reviews. How about going back to the same. So I start reading the reviews. I was shocked at the amount of people that reported failures with in the first year.
So I think I am going to try my luck with a Western Digital - Caviar GP 500GB Internal Hard. 70 bucks at best buy and I've doubled my space. If anyone has any suggestions let me know before I go get one tomorrow.
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It odd that you say this. Upon doing some trial and error attempt for my current PC situation, (blue screen o death) I have concluded that my hard drive is fubar. If I unplug it I can actually get my PC to read the OS disk for a reinstall. Of course theirs no where to put it.
So I pull the hard drive from my XPS410. I look at the name...Seagate. Its the Barracuda 7200.10. I thought to myself, OK lasted three yrs, not bad for an electronic component. So I go to look at the specs on NewEgg to see how much for the same or better. Wow. I was expecting cost to be a lot more. So I started looking at a 1 terabyte upgrade (Currently have 250gb). Seems to me that 1t+ have been quite unreliable from the customer reviews. How about going back to the same. So I start reading the reviews. I was shocked at the amount of people that reported failures with in the first year.
So I think I am going to try my luck with a Western Digital - Caviar GP 500GB Internal Hard. 70 bucks at best buy and I've doubled my space. If anyone has any suggestions let me know before I go get one tomorrow.
My only suggestion is that unless you go over 1Tb choose the black edition. Green editions are just slow.
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Mmmm should I go with the 1Tera then??
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WD black has 5 year warranty, the others I believe are 3 year. Also if you can wait 3 days order online from place like newegg and you save yourself some money
throwing this out as a example
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320
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I got a drive that does not require a firmware update so I missed that golden bb. Im not sure what to do with the brick though. :mad:
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I got a drive that does not require a firmware update so I missed that golden bb. Im not sure what to do with the brick though. :mad:
http://tgrounds.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-make-clock-out-of-hard-drive.html
Answer.
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It odd that you say this. Upon doing some trial and error attempt for my current PC situation, (blue screen o death) I have concluded that my hard drive is fubar. If I unplug it I can actually get my PC to read the OS disk for a reinstall. Of course theirs no where to put it.
So I pull the hard drive from my XPS410. I look at the name...Seagate. Its the Barracuda 7200.10. I thought to myself, OK lasted three yrs, not bad for an electronic component. So I go to look at the specs on NewEgg to see how much for the same or better. Wow. I was expecting cost to be a lot more. So I started looking at a 1 terabyte upgrade (Currently have 250gb). Seems to me that 1t+ have been quite unreliable from the customer reviews. How about going back to the same. So I start reading the reviews. I was shocked at the amount of people that reported failures with in the first year.
So I think I am going to try my luck with a Western Digital - Caviar GP 500GB Internal Hard. 70 bucks at best buy and I've doubled my space. If anyone has any suggestions let me know before I go get one tomorrow.
So after doing some reading, smashing my head into my desk, and obscene amounts of cussing I have learned that my problem actually was cause by Microsoft. It was a problem with an update that they had sent me. This update caused a failure during boot up. So I tried a bunch of methods I found out this is due to Microsoft. So I check MS website. They have a hotfix for it, but how to a hotfix into a PC that won't boot. I used the friendly chat feature, and the Tech Support guy in India told me (about 5-8times) that he was very sorry, and understands my issue. Step 1) Insert Windows 7 Install disc. Huh? Mr.NameICantPronounce, I don't have a Window 7 OS install disc. "I'm sorry Mr. Young, you need the Windows 7 install disc". So what your telling me is I need a new operating system to fix an issue with Vista? I find that to amusing. Ok, want to go that route. Ok, so send me Windows 7 Home Premium, and we'll get this fixed. "I'm sorry Sir, I cannot do this." But you work for Microsoft, you don't have a spare disc laying around? This goes on for 20+ min, same response. Install Windows 7 to cure the problem with Vista. So I ask to speak with a floor manager, same response. I politely ask the manager to check around with his superiors to see if there is anyway they can get copy of Windows 7. He said he would, and said he'll came back tomorrow. We shall see.
In the mean time I ran out to BestBuy, purchased a 500gb Seagate hard drive to see if I could get back up and going. It worked. Now to format my 250gb SeaGate and use it for my extra storage space I suppose. So maybe Seagate isn't all bad.
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I guess i say this alot on the forums but get yourself some mirror image software, I have seen clonezilla mentioned and is a open source (free), think that was from ghastly, theres norton ghost and acronis both those are pay for. Next time you have bunch of problems you have one more piece of ammo for the battle.
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Ok, so now I have this extra hard drive, I'd like to add it back to my PC reformat it and use it for storage. I know how to turn on the SATA port, but I do not know anything about RAID or BIOS. Once I turn on the port, a DOS like screen displays asking about RAID.
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If you're installing Windows on a SATA drive, you need to install the motherboard's SATA drivers by using a FLOPPY DISK (yes, you read that correctly) and hitting F6 when prompted during setup for RAID drivers.
Or you can pray to the computer gods that your motherboard works like mine does, and has an option to allow the SATA ports to act like 3rd and 4th IDE channels.
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You can also put all the drivers you need on a CDROM and dont worry about floppy drives.
Seagate has arranged for any bricked drives to be flashed by a service (www.i365.com) but there is no assuance that any bricked drive can actually be saved.
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You can also put all the drivers you need on a CDROM and dont worry about floppy drives.
Not during Windows setup. At least not that I've ever heard of. The CD drive isn't mounted during setup for the user because Windows expects it to just be the Windows CD. How handy.
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Yes during windows setup. :D At least it is during Vista setup.
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At least it is during Vista setup.
I'll admit I've never set up Vista (only overwritten it with XP a few billion times), only heard that it hadn't changed and was even still using the same installer. Hmm.
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SATA drivers have been included in windows installation CD since XP service pack 2. Earlier installation discs will need the floppy drive.
Vista and Win7 have native support for SATA devices.
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Well...finally. :D
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Seagate has the best warrenty out there 5 years, no hassles for RMA.
<S> Oz
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WD Black has 5 year warranty also, I am not saying that WD is better, just something to consider.