bluemoose

My Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750gb external USB hard drive that started
developing strange clicking/scratching/ticking/tapping metallic noises
after 3 weeks of use. It was near 80% capacity. (copied from all the
other computers in my house, as back-up)

Since it was still within the store's 30-day return period, I decided to
return it.

I had quite a bit of personal data on it, so I decided to do a simple
3-pass wiping before bringing the drive back to the store. No need
to do a 7-pass or even 35-pass(!), because the data wans't that
personal. Just didin't feel like having a strange looking at my family's
old photos and wedding videos, etc, etc...

So, I started the wiping process Friday night. The hard drive ran
nonstop... saturday, sunday.... When I woke up this morning,
the screen finally said "Finished" and it showed a total of nearly 50
hours from start to finish.

During the 2+ day, the hard drive was running nonstop and the
temperature was extremely hot. It got so hot that the paint on my
old desk developed a light brown spot... I couldn't even touch the
exterior of the drive with my bare hands. Can't imagine how hot it
was inside the external hard drive enclosure...

Could the hard drive have suffered some kind of damage after such
a long time of continuos operation? It was already returned to BestBuy
this afternoon and I got my $200 back in cash. I specifically told the
return guy that the drive was defective. I just hope they don't resell
it to someone again....