Sonoma Wire Works - Support Forums

by **atalwar** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:17 pm

Hi Guys,
I lost my 500 GIG not even a month old HDD with around 400 GIG of v.imp data in it, 2 days back. This was a backup drive.

I had to rip it open to find out that the controller card was all fried out. so i researched the drive model and found that seagate has been pushing faulty cards and drives in this freeagent series and their ST3500320AS 500GB series drives (internal as well as external). (a failure rate of 67-70% in this series - got the numbers from a valuable source)

I bought another of these drives today so i could swap the controller card and see if i could recover the data, but it didn't work out. ain't gonna use this new one for any imp data anyways.

sure the drive is under a 5 Yr warranty but fried card is a physical damage and uncovered and i really don't care about warranties as it wont get my data back anyway and now gotta sit with it at forensic levels and recover the data if at all possible.

Anyways a lesson learnt, any external hdd you buy, make sure it shuts down when your computer shuts down (usb can still be supplying power), this freeagent series i realized did not and kept running even when computer was off and could be one of the possible reasons,although any overheat drive should automatically shut off, maybe not in externals or maybe some miscommunication in manufacturing (made in china,assembled in Korea).

I am only posting here so that anyone who reads can make better choices and does not have to go through this risk and a nightmare.

My Riffworld · by **GuitarSlinger** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:26 pm

Thanks for the heads up. I've had older Seagates for about 6 years and had one burn out from regular use and lost data, but really like their quiter operation. I replaced it with a Hitachi drive but still have one. I really expect more from one of the top manufacturers.

Got any personal favorites? WDD, Maxtor, etc?

by **vad1er** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:38 pm

the reason I prefer Scusi (SCSI) 10,000 rpms reliable master drive (Rapter)with the 'ol IDE serial ATA as a backup brand isn't that important.. Sata is crap!! period..
Ya it is faster than IDE and cheaper than SCSI but look at the reliability.. I guess I just never got on the ban wagon although I have 5 spots for sata on my board-(I will never buy anything but a server board)...anyway sorry if I sound cynical but I have worked on so many PC's that the sata drive took a crap in lately(probably intentional y designed this way so you have to "keep buying".. And I notice that the old Ide's seem to run like champs.. maybe you should get an Ide risor or pci card and use it for backing up data... Also Scsi has gone down in price albiet slightly..

by **atalwar** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:06 pm

I got 6 seagate's in current basic system, 4 sata's barracuda's and 2 ide's

Dev wstn's and severs got Cheetah's though.

My Seagate'medalist pro 2.1G is built like a tank and has stood the test of worst of times.

I do have around 20-30 old hdds that are disconnected (ranging from 340 Mb ones, top of the line in their time) etc. Mostly seagate and Maxtors with a couple of wd's caviar here and there.

over the years most of the biggest brands products have compromised on quality of the stuff. perhaps their sheer volume of sales takes care of their ROI and warranties.

There is a lotta noise that the new SSD's are good but only time will tell if they will stand the test.

by **JouniL** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:27 pm

While we are at it: SATA RAID 0 (Striped) disks are crap!

Never never ever never create a striped SATA RAID 0 if you care for what you have on that disk, you will loose it within a year. Much safer to use a RAID 1 (Mirror) config if you feel you need it.

by **samiller** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 3:44 am

I've been avoiding all Seagate's for a long time...

two words,

Western
Digital

by **Charvelguy** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:29 am

Its been said many times that Seagate's overall quality has gone down since their buyout of Maxtor and shifting production moreso to China. Raid 1, and backup at lest 1x per week.

My Riffworld · by **GuitarSlinger** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:36 am

Well when my Barracudas were new I had them in a Raid 0, I think it was about 2 years and one died, it was under warranty from the store and I got the Hitachi as a replacement, they were out of the Seagate. I really enjoyed the fast speed of the Raid 0, but 2 years for a drive is too short. I don't think I'll go back to it again.

by **Charvelguy** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:25 am

hmm, I have a couple 250gb AS series in a rig as well as a coule ES Enterprise about.. I'll have to look ino it but I don't believe I have that freeagent... dont use to mny 500gb save for a couple.

by **atalwar** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 5:21 pm

seagate sv ,ns , es series are decent, video and server spec as they got more hours on em as compared to AS series but mostly AS is what is massively produced and sold perhaps due to profit and sales strategies.

The other freeagent series might just be ok, just be vary of this very particular model that is all especially if going external.

frankly the way things are going these days, who knows if even the drives and platters are like the common guitar strings,i.e. more or so likely same production source for upper registers, just different brands and ball ends on em.

It's ironical that the device made/marketed specifically for a certain task has failed in that very specific arena. Backup.

wondering what should i turn to for backups now? any ideas (dvds, blu-rays and tapes are not viable for me here)

by **solone1** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:43 pm

I've been let down by most of the major drive manufacturers over the years. Seagate, WD, IBM, etc.. They all can fail at anytime regardless of the MTBF rating. I use a number of external USB drives and have had very little failure. I actually see more loss of data caused by the OS or Software vs. the Hardware.

by **Charvelguy** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 1:19 am

I recently started using a Cavalry raid backup I got off Buy.com for under a 100.
I have not had it long enough to have any knowledge of how it performs (or lack thereof) for failure but it is setup within itself to protect the data it stores by utilzing dual 250gb hds formatted in Raid1 mirror. Connects by esata or USB.
I got it with a paypal discount for up to 15.00 back plus a rebate, so end cost after rebates was like 80.00 Looks as though the price went up since I bought it.

http://www.buy.com/prod/cavalry-500gb-usb-esata-2-bay-raid-disk-array-external-hard-drive/q/loc/101/208410919.html

The also have other setups for raid for higher capacity.
http://www.buy.com/prod/cavalry-1tb-hard-drive-raid-500gb-mirrored-dual-interface-usb-esata/q/loc/101/206805168.html

http://www.buy.com/prod/cavalry-1-5tb-750gb-mirrored-dual-interface-usb-2-0-esata-raid/q/loc/101/206805169.html

There are plenty of other options for backup as well, but a Raid mirror setup would probably be best..it all depends on how much you want to spend.

I'll chip in 5.00 bucks for your add-on contributions on here to get ya setup of a new backup. Be a good way to start the new year.

If you have a Mac, you're likely to have less options but check out Newegg too though.

by **atalwar** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 4:01 am

Thx Charvelguy,

Been able to recover most of the critical data. so now should be able to sleep good & tight.

btw am getting a wd raid mirror usb drive as a friend is upgrading to a e-sata version for his requirements and will have this as spare.

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