My HDD is dead

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allstarnz

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#30227 2-Feb-2009 12:59

My 2 month old 1TB SATA Seagate drive (i'll never buy their s__t ever again, this is the 2nd that's failed on me) has stopped being recognised.

I've pretty much given up on it, but wanted some thoughts before I give up the ghost

I plugged it into my PC, another PC internally and also via eSATA, all times it isn't even recognised by the BIOS. It will spin up, and not have the clicks of death. Any thoughts on things I could try?

I have a lot of data on it and would really like to try and get at least some of it off. Data recovery would be too expensive though I reckon.

ZollyMonsta

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#193396 2-Feb-2009 13:23

Oh dear... you could try downloading a linux live cd and see if you can copy the files over to a usb stick or similar?
I think the live cd I've used in the past is 'Slax'... can't remember offhand. But it would read ntfs disks.

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nairda

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#193402 2-Feb-2009 13:48

It could be that you've fallen victim to a well-known firmware problem. A quick search on google for your hard drive model number will probably reveal that you are not alone. Fortunately if this is the case your data should still be intact. Unfortunately it would mean you have to return your hard drive to Seagate to fix the problem.
See this for more details.

sbiddle

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#193405 2-Feb-2009 13:54

Full details here

Ragnor

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#193407 2-Feb-2009 14:03

Most likley it's not dead and your data is intact. Take it back to where you purchased it and either they or seagate can update the firmware and resolve the issue.

allstarnz

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#193416 2-Feb-2009 14:46

thanks guys, you have made me a little happier and hopeful.

Ragnor

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#193422 2-Feb-2009 14:57

You can also read about what happened from an inside seagate empyloee point of view posted here on slashdot:

http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1098793&cid=26542735

allstarnz

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#193463 2-Feb-2009 17:32

Well on further investiagation, my drive would seem to be one of those affected. Firmware, HDD and all are an exact match.

Have escalated it to the people I bought it off. as I can't run the firmware update needed myself.

Thanks for the info guys, hugely appreciated

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Adamal

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#193575 3-Feb-2009 00:38

Might be an idea to setup either a RAID1 or a RAID5.

Back in about October, I bought a couple of 1TB Seagates in a RAID0, and about 2 months ago, I bought another one and converted it to RAID5. About a month ago, one of my original 1TB drives failed! I would have died if I lost everything!

Having said that, RAID5 is a real b*stard! Especially on a ICH9R chipset. Performance goes down the loo, and I just had a drive drop off the array and now I can't add it back in again! Trying a few different things to get rid of meta data...

Just a note though, RAID5 isn't a 'backup'. It just means that if a drive dies, you're still up and running.

allstarnz

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#193799 3-Feb-2009 20:42

it's a difficult one, as it means more HDD's (cost + 'rack' space), and also RAID is by no means failsafe either, know of at least two people whose raid array has failed, and you lose the lot.

I do back up my data, but in the end it's come down to what can I never get back if I lose it. This then meant I do daily backups of my docs/photos and Thunderbird data. It's highly annoying to lose an amount of data, but if I do, 's__t happens'

Batman

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#193811 3-Feb-2009 21:15

let us know if you managed to get the firmware loaded. and got your data back.

i almost bought one of these but the shop ran out of stock and tried to sell me a wd caviar instead (which i bought when he said the seagates get returned every day - i thought he lied but he didn't!)