Failing hard drive question


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I posted before about my Sinology NAS which I started with Seagate Barracuda drive and they've been failing one by one and I've been replacing them with WD Red drives. it just occurred to me, have the drives actually failed in hardware or can they be formatted and used in a desktop PC? It never occurred to me that maybe it just developed errors and I could still use it in desktop PC's. Is that the case or are they paper weights?

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If it have an error, it's dead. You can't transfer dead drives to a new desktop.

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I posted before about my Sinology NAS which I started with Seagate Barracuda drive and they've been failing one by one and I've been replacing them with WD Red drives. it just occurred to me, have the drives actually failed in hardware or can they be formatted and used in a desktop PC? It never occurred to me that maybe it just developed errors and I could still use it in desktop PC's. Is that the case or are they paper weights?

When a drive is bad, it's bad. Be it smart errors, block errors, loading slowly, mechanical sounds, etc.

In theory yes depending on how much damage the drive has and what kind of damage you can use it in a low end machine than what it's use to, BUT do not do it because it's dumb. It's going to get worse and eventually fail at the worse time.

Also why aren't you RMA'ing these dead drives? Most drives have a 3 year warranty to at least 5 years.

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When a drive is bad, it's bad. Be it smart errors, block errors, loading slowly, mechanical sounds, etc.

In theory yes depending on how much damage the drive has and what kind of damage you can use it in a low end machine than what it's use to, BUT do not do it because it's dumb. It's going to get worse and eventually fail at the worse time.

Also why aren't you RMA'ing these dead drives? Most drives have a 3 year warranty to at least 5 years.

That's a good question. I never thought about that because I decided to use NAS drives. Without a sales receipt or any proof if purchase, how would I RMA them?

Also,mi noticed NewEgg has some options for extended warranties when I went to purchase a new red drive. I wonder if those are worth it.

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If you bought those Seagates off Newegg, your invoice is in your account.

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You don't need proof of purchase with hard drives. Hard drives are one of the only pieces of technology that's recorded throughout it's life.

If you go to the link below and out in your serial number you'll see how long your warranty is valid till. Never buy extended warranties on hard drives. Manufacturers do a good job taking care of you. I rma 10-25 drives a month and have experienced nothing but good customer service with wd/hitachi, toshiba and surprisingly seagate but I expect this from seagate since their rep is ######.

Seagate Warranty Validation: http://support.seagate.com/customer/en-US/warranty_validation.jsp?form=1

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You don't need proof of purchase with hard drives. Hard drives are one of the only pieces of technology that's recorded throughout it's life.

If you go to the link below and out in your serial number you'll see how long your warranty is valid till. Never buy extended warranties on hard drives. Manufacturers do a good job taking care of you. I rma 10-25 drives a month and have experienced nothing but good customer service with wd/hitachi, toshiba and surprisingly seagate but I expect this from seagate since their rep is ######.

Seagate Warranty Validation: http://support.seagate.com/customer/en-US/warranty_validation.jsp?form=1

Thank you so much for your post! I will certainly gather the failed drives and rma them. While I wont trust them in my NAS anymore, I will use them in my desktop. I wonder if Seagate has a NAS drive that they would exchange for if I paid any difference.

If you bought those Seagates off Newegg, your invoice is in your account.

Doh! Brilliant, I never thought of that, thanks!

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If it have an error, it's dead. You can't transfer dead drives to a new desktop.

 

Depends on the error, if it's just bad sectors, you could run spinrite and correct them, then clone it to a new drive.

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Is it absolutely necessary to connect the drives to my computer and run "Seatools" on them?

 

EDIT: I created the first drive return. I am on the 2nd one and I am getting a "product model mis-match" error. I checked the numbers and they are definitely correct. Does that mean it is too told or maybe the label was altered?

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Is it absolutely necessary to connect the drives to my computer and run "Seatools" on them?

 

EDIT: I created the first drive return. I am on the 2nd one and I am getting a "product model mis-match" error. I checked the numbers and they are definitely correct. Does that mean it is too told or maybe the label was altered?

 

Seagate model numbering is GARBAGE. So keep trying different model numbers. If nothing google it and see if it returns your drive. If it does go to the specific web store / website that has the hard drive and grab the model number of that page and put it on the warranty form and see what happens. Some model numbers are trial and error.

 

Dont run seatools. Say you did and then select whatever option that relates to your hard drive. Usually you cant RMA a drive and then offer to pay a difference for another model, it displaces their inventory and people would do it all the time. So I wouldnt bet on it. Yes, Seagate does have NAS drives, but I dont trust Seagate anyway so I wouldnt bother with "NAS" branded hard drives from them. They would probably last a little longer before they fail haha.

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Yeah, what I had to do was re click on the warranty check link. It seems that when I clicked to orde another drive, that link didn't take the drive info for some reason. I now have 4 drives on the way. Thanks so much for opening my eyes to this. I won't ever use them in a NAS again but maybe I will use 1 in my desktop and sell the rest.

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Yeah, what I had to do was re click on the warranty check link. It seems that when I clicked to orde another drive, that link didn't take the drive info for some reason. I now have 4 drives on the way. Thanks so much for opening my eyes to this. I won't ever use them in a NAS again but maybe I will use 1 in my desktop and sell the rest.

 

My rule of thumb is always have a spare of the same model. So the desktop you put it in, no matter how important it is to you, keep a spare. If you want to totally get rid of the Seagate's, then get rid of all of them and just buy a cheap WD Green for the desktop.

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My rule of thumb is always have a spare of the same model. So the desktop you put it in, no matter how important it is to you, keep a spare. If you want to totally get rid of the Seagate's, then get rid of all of them and just buy a cheap WD Green for the desktop.

 

I wouldn't touch green if it's for a desktop that runs all day long as they're not made to always run. A blue is more suited for that.

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I received emailed confirmations from Seagate but nothing else. How long does it usually take them to send them?

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I received emailed confirmations from Seagate but nothing else. How long does it usually take them to send them?

 

hahahahahahah. Did you do advance replacement or standard? Standard means you send first, they send back. Advanced means they put a hold on your card and send you hard drive first and you have up to 15(i believe) days to send the broken stuff back.

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It didn't ask for any credit card number or give me any choice of replacement. I guess it did standard?

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