"Seagate Barracuda Hard Drives Plagued By Failures" -- Info Week

Maxtor had lots of crash problems a few years back.

Maxtor has since been bought out by Seagate.

I afraid these "Barracuda" are actually Maxtor rebrands.
 
Quote from Tums:

Maxtor had lots of crash problems a few years back.

Maxtor has since been bought out by Seagate.

I afraid these "Barracuda" are actually Maxtor rebrands.
More...

Maybe that's the REAL reason for the reduction of warranty from 5 years to 3 years.

Backups!!
 
WD makes highly rated "RE3" drives (RAID Edition).... warns not to use as a single. However, there is a firmware change which can eliminate the "error" feature which makes them [supposedly] not suited for a single*. Unfortunately, that firmware change runs from a floppy drive... and few computers today have one.

* I run an older RE drive as a single... it has not presented any difficulty.
 
Quote from gnome:

The best customer rated Seagate HDD is the 7200.10, 250G, single platter, "410AS". I have one.. HD Tune reads about 90-95MBs on the outer 40%... 15.3ms access. I don't know that it is "especially" anything, but it does run cool and quiet, even when accessing.

The new 7200.12, 500G, single platter HDD also has "410AS" firmware, so I ordered one. With greater areal density, should be a bit faster..
More...

New poster at Newegg posts this....

"... Pros: 500 GB platters means very very very high read/write speeds. HDTune registered the following specs in my computer:
Minimum: 46 MB/s
Maximum: 128 MB/s
Average: 98.6 MB/s
Access Time: 15.3 ms
Burst Rate: 179.3 MB/s..."

Spiffy numbers..
 
thanks for posting this... unfortunatley I just purchased a few of those drives this week. Fortunatley i'm backed up and redundant so unless I lose three or more at a time I'll be fine.
 
Quote from Capablanca:

Don't forget to update the firmware.
More...

The 410AS is not on the list of problem drives.. likely no firmware update needed.
 
Update from customer review at Newegg...

"...
Pros: Mine has a 5 year warranty period per my registering drive at Seagate and the "Is My Drive in Warranty?" section in Support. I have a model #ST3500410AS. I noticed that the Seagate site now lists the 500GB 7200.12 as model #ST3500418AS. Perhaps "it" has the 3 year warranty..."

Might be a new model number to mark the change in warranty... if ordered soon, might get lucky and get one with the 5-year warranty...
 
Seagate has a new warranty policy since the start of the year - its tied to the date you purchased:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/warranty_&_returns_assistance/product_warranty_matrix/

Q. When does this change go into effect?

A. January 3, 2009

Q. What about products purchased before Jan. 3, 2009? Will Seagate still honor the warranty offered at time of time of original purchase?

A. Yes, any Seagate customers who purchase(d) products prior to Jan. 3 will be covered by the warranty in place at the time of purchase.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top