January 16, 2009

Yikes - high failure rate on 1TB Seagate hard drives

If you have a 1TB hard disk from Seagate, check it's serial number and firmware revision and make sure your backup systems work (ie: don't just copy everything to another 1TB Seagate drive) From The Register:
Seagate customers swamped by Barracuda drive failures
Seagate 1TB Barracuda drives are failing at an alarming rate, with users complaining of a plague of such failures spreading across the globe.

Barracuda 7200.11 drives made in Thailand (ref: ST31000340AS with firmware level SD15) are failing at boot time with a firmware error that is said to lock the drive up and render it inoperable. Seagate's warranty procedure for failed drives has been used by owners, with an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorisation) number issued for the failed drive to be returned to Seagate and replaced. However, replacements are said to be of the same type, and so prone to the same error.
And ominously:
Seagate recently reduced its bare drive warranty period, raising some doubts about product quality standards.
They used to be some of the best drives out there and had a five year warrenty. Now it is three years. Posted by DaveH at January 16, 2009 7:24 PM