Bad Seagate hard drive?

[Getback]

I purchased a new seagate HD and it will not show up in BIOS. I tried change ports and changing power cables. Nothing. My son told me, after I ordered it, that Seagates are troublesome. Any thoughts?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I purchased a new seagate HD and it will not show up in BIOS. I tried change ports and changing power cables. Nothing. My son told me, after I ordered it, that Seagates are troublesome. Any thoughts?

Is your computer very old / drive very large? That might cause problems. If not, probably a bad drive.

[BaldEagl]

Not sure what's going on there but I've had much better luck with Seagate than WD.  I've never had a Seagate fail on me but I've had 2-3 WD's fail.

[Bizman]

If it is, like I suggest, a SATA2 type drive and your computer is a little older one, there might be a possibility that your motherboard doesn't support SATA2. Luckily there's a solution: Put a jumper to force the hdd to SATA1 speed. Here's why and below how:

[MrRiplEy[H]]

If it is, like I suggest, a SATA2 type drive and your computer is a little older one, there might be a possibility that your motherboard doesn't support SATA2. Luckily there's a solution: Put a jumper to force the hdd to SATA1 speed. Here's why and below how:

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Or perhaps even SATA3?

[Getback]

If it is, like I suggest, a SATA2 type drive and your computer is a little older one, there might be a possibility that your motherboard doesn't support SATA2. Luckily there's a solution: Put a jumper to force the hdd to SATA1 speed. Here's why and below how:

(Image removed from quote.)

I'll give that a shot Bizzman.

Thanks!

[Ghosth]

Bald funny thing is my experience is exactly opposite of yours.

I've got WD drives around that are 8 years old, never had a good one (read reasonably new, less than 3 years old) fail in the last 10 years.

But, every Seagate drive I've ever owned has bit me. Including a very expensive 80 mb (yes thats MB) Seagate that was brand new back in 95 and lasted less than 2 years.

Since I switched to WD I've been getting roughly twice the life out of them and half the problems. Or so it seems to me.  Your mileage may vary.

[TilDeath]

Bald funny thing is my experience is exactly opposite of yours.

I've got WD drives around that are 8 years old, never had a good one (read reasonably new, less than 3 years old) fail in the last 10 years.

But, every Seagate drive I've ever owned has bit me. Including a very expensive 80 mb (yes thats MB) Seagate that was brand new back in 95 and lasted less than 2 years.

Since I switched to WD I've been getting roughly twice the life out of them and half the problems. Or so it seems to me.  Your mileage may vary.

x2

[Tigger29]

x3

Although now my g/f's computer is locking up randomly (000000F4 error) running XP.  Memory and processor tests run indefinitely with no issues, but when I run the WD Harddrive test software, it bluescreens with the same error about half way through the test every time even though the 'quick tests' pass.  Definitely suspecting the hard drive in her case.  This will be the first WD I've seen fail in years.

I did build a system for a squaddie who was hurting financially and couldn't keep up with the latest graphics updates so we all pitched in to help him out.  Because of an extremely limited budget, I selected a Seagate drive which works fine, but really.. the thing felt very lightweight and cheap.  Almost like its insides were gutted I bet it was 1/3 to 1/2 the weight of a WD.  It installed and worked fine so only time will tell but it was definitely different.

I've used WD, Seagate, Hitachi, Maxtor (Those were awesome back in the day), and I'm sure a few other brands in the past but WD's always held up the best.

[Skuzzy]

Periodically I try WD, and the last two times I had;

1) DOA
2) Replacement for DOA died in a week.
3) The second drive died within a month.
4) The two failed drives were replaced and one ran 7 months.  The other died during the format after installation.

All it means to me is I never recommend any brand of hard drive.  All of them can be bad at any point in time.  All of them can have a bad run.  All of them also make a cheap line of drives that should be avoided.  Seagates AS line, comes to mind.  Pure junk.  The NS line, on the other hand, is much better.

I have also had DOA Seagates, and had one Seagate die within a year.


It is a crap shoot.  I would suspect anyone who made any absolute claims about what drive is best.  They are all commodity product.

[Fulmar]

I've run the gauntlet of all brands, hand me down drives, purchased my own, fixed immediate family member's computers.  Since 1996, I've had 5 hard drives fail on me.  3 WD's, 1 Deathstar, 1 Samsung.  The brands that I've never had fail on me were Maxtor and Seagate.  I even have a Maxtor circa 1997 that is fully functional, and its been abused.

And I've run into this thread across many forums and everyone claims are different.  I find it very similar to cars (Chevy, Ford, Honda, Toyota etc).

Not every model is the same across a brand.  Not every brand produces perfect drives.

[Tigger29]

That's true.. those are some good points.  One line of one brand can be completely different than a different line of the same brand.  Also, the hard drives of 5-10 years ago were completely different beasts as compared to today.

Yes, you could say the same stuff about Ford vs. Chevy for example.. or AMD vs. Intel.  If a trend does start to develop, it's likely going to change before you end up actually purchasing the product.

[Getback]

I never could get that thing to work. I tested on the other computer and it didn't run. Cost 14 bucks to RMA that thing and for what, nothing. I went to a box store today and bought another. I will say this it sure takes a long time to format a 1TB!

[Chalenge]

Every hard drive I have bought is still working. Seagate WD Maxtor... 

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Any hdd will die if you don't cool it properly. Touch your hdd in you case - if it feels hot to the touch in its middle part, it's going to die fast. Problem is escalated if you stack several hdd's on top of eachothers. I haven't had a single hdd failure since I adopted the habit of installing a separate cooling fan directly to flow on the hdds.