Storage Solutions Minor issue with seagate - st31000528as - is this a failure model ?

A

anfjavid

Contributor
hello guys yesterday i went and bought this 1tb drive. Actually before starting and found in the web that there are two types of internal hdds. One ends with RK (retail kit) which carries 5 yr warranty and the other ends with 348as. But when i reached the market they had 528as. ENquired in two shops about 5 yr warranty which they denied. So bought the 528as.

On connecting it to my PC, i could see only the power light and hdd light blinking and the monitor displays nothing. I removed the sata data cable and no change. Then i removed the sata power cable from hdd. This time pc runs fine. So i changed the power cable and and the same issue. Got exhausted after plugging and unplugging a couple of times and checked with my brother's pc. ANd voila, his PC works fine witht the hdd.

Now connected with my pc and it got detected . I thought the cause of the issue is the antistatic bag over which i kept the hdd . Now i partitioned, everything went ok. Backed up the contents of the old hdd to this one. Then removed the old one and installed it in the drive bay, closed cabby. Now the same issue. Got frustrated.
Now opened the cabby unplugged and replugged the sata data cable. Now it got detected and from that time (3 am midnight) its working fine...

Now my question is why did the hdd behave misteriously ?. Is this because of the anti static bag ?. I thought that the anti static bag wont allow the current to flow into the hdd and will also stop other components from working. Pardon me but i am not an engg. student and not well verse with these electronic concepts except assembling and TSing PCs :P .

After that since the same issue occured after placing inside the bay, i read reviews in some sites including TE and came across some members whose HDD has started going kaput. PLease enlighten me guys. Is this a wrong choice ??.
 
I suggest you replace your hard drive - go to the shop and return it and say that its not working as its supposed to work. get another harddrive in return. Today i gave two of the same 1tb harddrives you bought yesterday for rma -- i bought them exactly a year back. they failed yesterday with all sorts of errors showing up on hdtune and windows. I guess this 1Tb 528AS model is faulty.
 
I had the same query about this particular model. Is it just co-incidence or are these series drives are indeed faulty ?

They have been around for more than a year now.

Similar drive owners and experienced hands do post your views and experiences with this one.
 
Here's some news for the TE janta right from Accel Frontline(Ahmedabad). I was told about higher returns for the following hdds listed below by the guy at the counter and on a side note 3 people including me had same issues with the 1TB(ST31000528AS) at the service center which I found out after I spoke to them.

People with the following hdds should be careful :-

[1]ST3750528AS - 750Gb--crc errors, read write errors

[2]ST31000528AS - 1Tb--drive gives high sector reallocation count,drive detection failure when connected to a pc, firmware issues with certain versions, drive failure time anywhere between 2months to 1yr (both my drives failed within one year)

[3]ST320005EXA101-RK - 2TB (this belongs to the external drive category) - firmware issues with certain versions, random drive failure.

[4]STST32000542AS - 2TB - Drive firmware issues, failure to detect on powering the pc. (this is true for certain firmware versions only)

These models have higher returns according to Accelfrontline. People with these drives should be careful. The 1Tb drives come with different firmware versions and I am currently looking up the firmware versions which have the least issue in this make. Do consider backing up your critical data if you happen to have one of these above mentioned drives. Alternatively you can talk to people sitting(if they are polite and friendly) in Accelfrontline and ask them for drives which have higher returns and the usual time for failure.
 
I think the firmware version is 334/335-i can confirm only after I check the snaps i took of the drives a year back when I posted it in the showoff thread.

You can find your firmware version on the white sticker above your drive - which has part number, serial number, etc.
 
Googled a bit, one can see the firmware version with the Driver Detect Software available here.

My drive's firmware is version CC38. Need to search more on the topic.
 
i gave my drives for rma dont have the exact firmware versions -searching for the pics- i wrote down the model numbers they told me which according to them had higher return/failure rates on a piece of paper and posted the same here.
 
sunny27 said:
I suggest you replace your hard drive - go to the shop and return it and say that its not working as its supposed to work. get another harddrive in return. Today i gave two of the same 1tb harddrives you bought yesterday for rma -- i bought them exactly a year back. they failed yesterday with all sorts of errors showing up on hdtune and windows. I guess this 1Tb 528AS model is faulty.
Click to expand...

Actually i made my decesion to get this crap because of this thread

http://www.techenclave.com/storage-solutions/seagate-7200-12-1tb-st31000528as-reliable-166101.html

If some unreliable / contradictory info is found in any thread they should be removed immediately. The MODS have to exercise great care in this respect....

The thread says that this model is very reliable.... Now what to do ?. Anyway drive is working fine as for now. Moreover when the driver dint get detected in my pc, i connected it to my brothers pc and it worked immediately... Dont know how ???!!!!. So it made me think that the issue is because of the antistatic bag. FYI my drive's FW is cc38. Will the issue be resolved by the latest cc46 FW ?. I heard that there are some issues with that FW also... BS..
 
anfjavid said:
Actually i made my decesion to get this crap because of this thread

http://www.techenclave.com/storage-solutions/seagate-7200-12-1tb-st31000528as-reliable-166101.html

If some unreliable / contradictory info is found in any thread they should be removed immediately. The MODS have to exercise great care in this respect....

The thread says that this model is very reliable.... Now what to do ?. Anyway drive is working fine as for now. Moreover when the driver dint get detected in my pc, i connected it to my brothers pc and it worked immediately... Dont know how ???!!!!. So it made me think that the issue is because of the antistatic bag. FYI my drive's FW is cc38. Will the issue be resolved by the latest cc46 FW ?. I heard that there are some issues with that FW also... BS..
Click to expand...
hi anfjavid ........... seems u did not read this thread carefully ...

i started this thread and then bought same model HDD ..which then failed within 2 months ..U should have learnt from my experience

Btw i posted on the hdd failure in August .. how come u missed it ???
 
Dex@ter said:
hi anfjavid ........... seems u did not read this thread carefully ...

i started this thread and then bought same model HDD ..which then failed within 2 months ..U should have learnt from my experience

Btw i posted on the hdd failure in August .. how come u missed it ???
Click to expand...

Finally bought the 500gb one :ashamed:... The shopkeeper was kind enough to refund the balance amount, however he charged a little high for the 500gb. Anyway it doesnt matter..

Guys, its very difficult to make up my mind to go for other brands... The reason is WD - totally unreliable, SAMSUNG and HITACHI unknown about ASS and quality... Seagate hdds have served me well for more than a decade..

Actually we are going to setup surveillance system in our shop and a 500gb hdd is required for the DVR for recording.. So i decided to throw my old 500gb hdd into the DVR and get a new 1TB. When my father called up and told about the requirement i was very happy. I had been waiting for about 6 months to replace this drive and thought that this is the right time.. But things dint go fine as i thought :no:

Now this HDD is for the DVR.

Guys i am worried now :(. Got the drive with great expectation that it will do wonders since it has 32MB cache , double platter and the double capacity, but to my shock it only performs blunders....

Shame on you SEAGATE :@
 
sunny27 said:
i gave my drives for rma dont have the exact firmware versions -searching for the pics- i wrote down the model numbers they told me which according to them had higher return/failure rates on a piece of paper and posted the same here.
Click to expand...

Did you find those pics which had the FW versions?
Dex@ter said:
hi anfjavid ........... seems u did not read this thread carefully ...

i started this thread and then bought same model HDD ..which then failed within 2 months ..U should have learnt from my experience

Btw i posted on the hdd failure in August .. how come u missed it ???
Click to expand...

Dex@ter, can you tell us the FW version of that drive? What about the replacement one, how is it working and how long did you have to wait for the same?
 
wah!!!
since past 2yrs we were suffering from 500gb & now mo0re additions with 1tb + 2tb wtf is wrong with seagate???:@:@

Its clear now that seagate is facing very serious competition from its competitors esp WD and thus is releasing new hdds in hush-rush without verifying their integrity & reliability.

Its time to RIP seagate:judge:
i guess we need to go back to past & get some good old ide disks:ashamed: which were truly reliable & valuable for money.
 
I have got rid of all my hard drives but it seems these days SSD's are more reliable. But compared to WD, Seagate is the better option.
 
ya in todays world where still 1tb isnt reliable its safer to invest 2-300 bucks more n get 2 x 500

will even advice for people going 1tb x 2 or a single 2tb hdd; get 4 x 500. They may fail but of course not at the very same point ;)
 
ronit said:
ya in todays world where still 1tb isnt reliable its safer to invest 2-300 bucks more n get 2 x 500
will even advice for people going 1tb x 2 or a single 2tb hdd; get 4 x 500. They may fail but of course not at the very same point ;)
Click to expand...
But in Chennai we dont get at that price. A 500gb retails from 1725 - 1800 and 1tb 2750 - 2800. So the difference comes around 700. I am not bothered about the 700 difference but my cabby doesnt have sufficient space which gets cramped after installing another hdd...

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

Better we have to hold on for sometime till the SSD prices come down. Even the 80gb ones are insanely priced and 1TB drives are not out yet.. Now i realise that one among the main reason why SSDs are invented is because the more the HDD capacity increases, the more risk it is prone to, causing havoc to the data..

Today i called up REDINGTON INDIA and asked the sales manager if any new series will be out in the near future and they replied its not, and they dint get any info regarding this. Moreover he said according to him there are no complaints with the 528as and all of them are fast moving for the past 4-5 months. He asked me to check with the 1.5TB model which was coming with 5 yr warranty. But since it is stopped i have to find a shop which stocks them... But reliability of the 1.5TB is also not assured. He told that it was very expensive when it was retailing in the market...
 
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