Is Seagate Hiding Something?

MisterEd

Member
Is Seagate Hiding Something?

Three weeks ago I bought a Seagate external hard drive (Seagate Expansion 2TB STBV2000100). Since I wanted to use it to back up important data I decided to test it with Seagate Seatools. I am now on my 3rd drive. Here is a summary of what I have found:
Drive #1: failed the Short Generic and Long Generic tests. I returned it to the vendor for replacement.
Drive #2: failed the Seatools Short Generic test. Seagate sent me another drive. I am to send drive #2 to them within 30 days.
Drive #3: failed the Seatools Short Generic test.

I contacted Seagate Technical Support about this problem. They offered no help and seemed clueless that there might be a problem either with their diagnostic software or drives.

I just tested the 3rd drive again but this time I used the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools. I tested it with the "Extended Test" option which took 19 hours. It passed this test. Since I still had the 2nd drive I am testing it also with the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools. The test is still running but I expect it to also pass.

I guess I will keep the 3rd drive and send the 2nd to Seagate. As long as Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools says the drive is OK I have some confidence that the drive is safe to use.

BTW, I got the same failed results on two other computers so nobody can say that the problem was my computer. Also, I tested the drive on USB 3.0 & USB 2.0 on my main computer and USB 2.0 and the other computers.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
If possible, remove the actual hard drive from the external case and hook it up directly to computer and test it that way. Usually another manufacturers test won't work on a different brand drive. Always use the one designed for it.
 

MisterEd

Member
If possible, remove the actual hard drive from the external case and hook it up directly to computer and test it that way. Usually another manufacturers test won't work on a different brand drive. Always use the one designed for it.
I would if it was out of warranty. Since it is a new drive that came installed in the enclosure I don't want to risk voiding the warranty.

I have a couple other external drives that I have bought the drives and enclosures separately. I take these drives in and out of their cases from time to time. One of these is for IDE drives and has USB2 interface, The other is for SATA drives and has USB2 and eSATA interfaces.

BTW, I did have another enclosure for IDE drives that had a USB2 interface. The enclosure no longer works but I removed the drive and put it in the new enclosure mentioned above.

I bought the new drive strictly for backup purposes. I wanted one with a USB3 interface for speed. Next time I'll probably buy the enclosure and drive separately so I can freely remove the drive for testing if needed.

Whether the manufactures diagnostic works on drives from other manufactures depends upon the software. Seagate's Seatools works fine on all my drives which include drives made by Seagate, Maxtor and Western Digital. Likewise for Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic which works on all my drives also. I have found some manufactures diagnostic software that will only work on their drives. The software will clearly state that when it runs.

BTW, Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic just got done with drive #2. The Extended Test with it failed. Since this same test passed drive #3 I'll keep it and send drive #2 to Seagate as planned all along and let them figure out what is going on. I have wasted too much time and money on this already.
 

MisterEd

Member
I just wanted to update this.

I used Seagate SeaTools to test a SATA drive in another external enclosure:
MaCally Model T-S350SU (Hi-Speed eSATA/USB2.0 Enclosure)
Seagate Model ST3300620AS (Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 300-GB Hard Drive)
I tested the drive using its USB 2.0 interface. It passed the SeaTools Short Generic test.

I tested both the Seagate Expansion 2TB drives using a program called HDDscan. The SMART information was acceptable. I ran the RD-Read test on both drives. There were no errors. The test took 4 hours to run averaging 150,000 KBytes/sec on the computer's USB 3.0 port.

The RD-Read test on a USB 2.0 port would have taken a lot longer since the read rate would have averaged only about 35,000 KBytes/sec.
 

S.T.A.R.S.

banned
I personally never had problems with Seagate drives.Some of them are more than 10 years old and they still work like new and there is not a single bad sector.

"Wow" I guess! :D

Where did you buy your Seagate drives when you have problems with them so much? :confused:
 

MisterEd

Member
Where did you purchase the drive?
The 1st and 2nd drives came from Newegg. The 3rd drive came directly from Seagate. Note the 2nd drive was a replacement for the 1st drive while the 3rd drive was a replacement for the 2nd one.

The only drive I have now is the 3rd one. I will use it for backup for now but will use use non-Seagate software to test it from time to time to make sure there are no problems.

At this point I have given up trying to figure out what was going on with these drives. I have a feeling there is a problem with Seatools with this drive but can't prove it. Since Seagate has not indicated that they care then I can go no further with them except give a negative response in the survey they sent me.
 
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