Here's a funny story for ya'll. About 6 months ago, I bought a 250gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA II HDD. About 3 months ago, it failed SMART tests so I bought another drive (Same model) to replace it and when I had the faulty one replaced I went RAID 0. About a month ago, I noticed a squeaking noise coming from my PC during high ammounts of HD activity. So, I ran a SMART test, and whaddya know, the HD I bought to replace the first dead drive has developed a fault. Although it was just a squeaking noise at first, its finally started getting worse, so I've just taken the faulty drive out and guess what I'm greeted with when I boot the pc? "3rd Master Hard DriveL S.M.A.R.T. Status: BAD, Backup and replace." The drive I bought to replace the faulty drive has now developed a fault. So right now, I have TWO faulty seagate drives. Thats three seagate drives that have died within 6 months of each other. Needless to say this has TOTALLY put me off Seagate. Before moving to Seagate I used to use Maxtor, and I never once had a problem. So, now Seagate are the new Maxtor this just leaves me with Samsung and WD. I've never owned a WD drive, but I've had a pleasant experience with Samsung drives. So, I guess the question is, seeing as I'm currently in the process of RMAing both drives with the intent of selling them as soon as I've confirmed they're working, what hard drive should I get? The only prefernce I have is at least two drives and 250gb of space on each drive so I can set them up in a RAID 0 array. And before you start saying 'Raid 0 is balls etc etc', the two Seagate drives in RAID 0 were much faster than just one drive, so I see the benefits there.
I'd check to see if the controller isn't causing a problem somehow (stranger things have happened) and Samsung is the way to go.
Hell, that sucks Samor. Like yourself I use to buy Maxtor and have not had any problems with them at all. This is after lugging them around to countless LANs etc. Switched to Seagate on advice from a friend who is alot more knowledgeable than me in the ways of PC. Not had any problems so far. My advice would be to stick with what you know works (maxtor). Better the devil you know
Bungle, I'd go back to maxtor, but Seagate and Maxtor are now the same company, going under the Seagate name I think my next drive(s) will be of the samsung brand
on noes, not maxtor technology in seagate drives? Those i have are rock solid, even dropped one while it was running and it still runs 24/7 in my server.
Everyone seems to have a different experience. I swear by Seagate - never failed me, but Maxtor has given me the same trouble like you've had :S Try Samsung or Hitachi and check the mobo isn't giving you jip
Are you sure the ventilation in your case is up to scratch? Also why didn't you RMA them? Or have you? My experience - I used to use Maxtor but after a few probs and their general noisiness moved over to Seagate a few years ago. I bought 2 7200.7 160gb drives, 1 was fine the other was as noisey as hell and used to randomly squeak/chirp, this drive lasted around 7 months before it failed so I put it away to 1 side and ordered a 500gb 7200.10. Around 3 months later the other 7200.7 failed so I RMA'ed them together and this is where Seagate really fell down in my opinion, both the replacement drives didn't work, 1 was just plain dead the other fired up but during a burn in test it too died. This was followed by a few weeks of arguing with Seagate CS about who should pay to send back the dead replacements. It all turned out fine in the end, they upgraded the drives to the latest 7200.10 model but never the less a real pain in the backside. Would I buy Seagate again, well if the price is right then I would as the 7200.10 drives have been running sweet.
IAmATeaf, thats EXACTLY the problem I'm having. The first drive was replaced because of chirping, then the one I got back from RMA was fine. Then the second drive I bought (NOT the RMA'd one) started chirping, now the RMA'd one has started chirping. Whats more, the chirping sends my dog crazy, AND when the drive chirps, any data that's being written/read from the drive gets corrupted. Although that might be because its in RAID 0. Funny you should speak about ventilation, there is a 120mm fan infront of both drives running at 7v. A while back I unplugged the fan to see if it made the case any quieter, and I didn't notice the chirping, but the drives were getting a bit too warm for my liking. When I plugged the fan back in, they started chirping again! I'm really annoyed at Seagate too, because Maxtor used to do an advanced replacement, but Seagate don't. Also, these drives are REALLY loud, very fast drives though, but mighty loud. As for the mobo being the problem, it would seem like thats the problem, I'll test a faulty drive with the eSATA (uses a Sillicon Image controller iirc) port in a bit
Yer it would be worth checking the mobo. Seems a bit odd, unless everyone else with that model is having the same issue over different brand mobo's and controllers. I've not had a failure on a Seagate yet, I've been using a few sata and pata 7200.9's since they come out (which is a good few years now). What about your PSU, might be worth checking that nothing is fluctuating. Just a thought.
Unfortunately some Seagate drives are louder then others, talk to Seagate and all they'll say is that the drives ae within spec. Luckily for me my 250gb and 500gb 7200.10 drives are both quiet and running fine (touch wood).
Hmm, I'm really confused now. I've just tried to re-install windows on one of the hd's. After the first stage of installing, I got a BSOD about ACPI not being present so I reset the bios. Now the HD doesn't chirp at all, and the SMART warning has dissappeared.
thus why I said to check the controller. always suspect the controller if two consecutive drives fail(same or not)
Nah, theyre still chirping. Just ran seagate's drive test and came back faulty. The chirping issue is a well known fault with these drives according to google
I've personally always stuck with Western digital. Installed them in my systems and friends and neer had any problems.
Check out SpinRite over at www.grc.com Its a great program which has managed to fix various faults with hard disks and my rescue data. By running it a few times a year on your disks it will keep them healthy and prevent problems from developing.
I actually bought that program, its REALLY good. I've tried it on these drives, and it didn't even find any problems. I'm pretty sure its a mechanical problem with the drives, and spinrite (they really should've called it SpinWrite) can't fix those. http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=323951&sid=c1e42a1d1f668e4456416fdae49fa3ff Have a read!
