Seagate Barracuda 160 GB IDE becomes corrupted. RMA?

[Dan_Musicant]

Part number: ST3160023A-RK

Bought 08/13/2004 online at outpost.com, and it still has almost 4 years
on the warranty. I've never lost a HD before, although I RMA'd one that
was getting bad sectors 6 months after purchase. I've had over 10 HDD's.
This was working perfectly, AFAIK and suddenly a couple of days ago
Windows 2000 doesn't see the drive (Explorer). Disk Management shows it
online but unformatted. So, I suppose the partition table became
corrupted. Is this an automatic RMA? Can it be assumed that it's a
hardware issue? Is it possible for me to retrieve the data somehow? Or
is that an expensive and/or iffy proposition? Of the 3 HDD's in the
system, this was the most expendable in terms of the data. In that I was
extremely lucky. I used it mainly for backup and temporary work.

Thanks for any info.

Dan

 

[J. Clarke]

Part number: ST3160023A-RK

Bought 08/13/2004 online at outpost.com, and it still has almost 4 years
on the warranty. I've never lost a HD before, although I RMA'd one that
was getting bad sectors 6 months after purchase. I've had over 10 HDD's.
This was working perfectly, AFAIK and suddenly a couple of days ago
Windows 2000 doesn't see the drive (Explorer). Disk Management shows it
online but unformatted. So, I suppose the partition table became
corrupted. Is this an automatic RMA? Can it be assumed that it's a
hardware issue? Is it possible for me to retrieve the data somehow? Or
is that an expensive and/or iffy proposition? Of the 3 HDD's in the
system, this was the most expendable in terms of the data. In that I was
extremely lucky. I used it mainly for backup and temporary work.

Thanks for any info.

There is a diagnostic utility on the Seagate site, download it, run it, and
see what it says--if it says your drive is dead then RMA it, otherwise try
to figure out if anything else is wrong, like a flaky power supply, before
you assume that the drive is bad.

If retrieving the data is an issue for you you need a better backup
strategy.

 

[Dan_Musicant]

On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 18:13:29 -0500, "J. Clarke"

an_Musicant wrote:
:
:> Part number: ST3160023A-RK
:>
:> Bought 08/13/2004 online at outpost.com, and it still has almost 4 years
:> on the warranty. I've never lost a HD before, although I RMA'd one that
:> was getting bad sectors 6 months after purchase. I've had over 10 HDD's.
:> This was working perfectly, AFAIK and suddenly a couple of days ago
:> Windows 2000 doesn't see the drive (Explorer). Disk Management shows it
:> online but unformatted. So, I suppose the partition table became
:> corrupted. Is this an automatic RMA? Can it be assumed that it's a
:> hardware issue? Is it possible for me to retrieve the data somehow? Or
:> is that an expensive and/or iffy proposition? Of the 3 HDD's in the
:> system, this was the most expendable in terms of the data. In that I was
:> extremely lucky. I used it mainly for backup and temporary work.
:>
:> Thanks for any info.
:
:There is a diagnostic utility on the Seagate site, download it, run it, and
:see what it says--if it says your drive is dead then RMA it, otherwise try
:to figure out if anything else is wrong, like a flaky power supply, before
:you assume that the drive is bad.
:
:If retrieving the data is an issue for you you need a better backup
:strategy.

I talked to two Seagate support guys this afternoon and they recommended
Seatools. I did run this a couple of days ago but interrupted the full
scan (over an hour). This time I run every test including the full test.
No errors were found.

I have no indication of other problems with the system, but maybe there
is something.

My backup strategy is pretty good and in fact, I think I lost very
little - just one HDTV show I recorded over a year ago and never
watched. Big deal. If it had been either of my other two HDDs, though, I
would have been well backed up, but I would certainly have lost some
information. If my boot drive, I would have had to install my 3
operating systems again. If my main data drive, I would have lost some
stuff, but 90+% of it is backed up on another HD.

If I'd lost more than one HD or all 3, I would have lost some data, but
most of the stuff that's really important to me would be backed up.

I'm formatting the drive as I type.

 

[Eric Gisin]

It is NOT a hardware problem. It is NTFS corruption.
You didn't enable Win 2K large (137GB) drive support in the registry,
and NTFS wrote past 137G which wiped the MBR and boot sector.

 

[Rod Speed]

I talked to two Seagate support guys this afternoon and they
recommended Seatools. I did run this a couple of days ago but
interrupted the full scan (over an hour). This time I run every test
including the full test. No errors were found.

Then its unlikely to be the hard drive failing.
See what Everest says about the SMART data.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

I have no indication of other problems with
the system, but maybe there is something.

Something must have made it go unformatted.

Is it external or internal ?

My backup strategy is pretty good and in fact, I think I lost very
little - just one HDTV show I recorded over a year ago and never
watched. Big deal. If it had been either of my other two HDDs,
though, I would have been well backed up, but I would certainly have
lost some information. If my boot drive, I would have had to install
my 3 operating systems again. If my main data drive, I would have
lost some stuff, but 90+% of it is backed up on another HD.

If I'd lost more than one HD or all 3, I would have lost some data,
but most of the stuff that's really important to me would be backed up.

It should be all the data that you'll slash your
wrists if you lose, on CD or DVD at a minimum.

 

[J. Clarke]

On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 18:13:29 -0500, "J. Clarke"

an_Musicant wrote:
:
:> Part number: ST3160023A-RK
:>
:> Bought 08/13/2004 online at outpost.com, and it still has almost 4
:> years on the warranty. I've never lost a HD before, although I RMA'd
:> one that was getting bad sectors 6 months after purchase. I've had over
:> 10 HDD's. This was working perfectly, AFAIK and suddenly a couple of
:> days ago Windows 2000 doesn't see the drive (Explorer). Disk Management
:> shows it online but unformatted. So, I suppose the partition table
:> became corrupted. Is this an automatic RMA? Can it be assumed that it's
:> a hardware issue? Is it possible for me to retrieve the data somehow?
:> Or is that an expensive and/or iffy proposition? Of the 3 HDD's in the
:> system, this was the most expendable in terms of the data. In that I
:> was extremely lucky. I used it mainly for backup and temporary work.
:>
:> Thanks for any info.
:
:There is a diagnostic utility on the Seagate site, download it, run it,
:and see what it says--if it says your drive is dead then RMA it,
therwise try to figure out if anything else is wrong, like a flaky power
:supply, before you assume that the drive is bad.
:
:If retrieving the data is an issue for you you need a better backup
:strategy.

I talked to two Seagate support guys this afternoon and they recommended
Seatools. I did run this a couple of days ago but interrupted the full
scan (over an hour). This time I run every test including the full test.
No errors were found.

I have no indication of other problems with the system, but maybe there
is something.

I've had drives go flaky on me due to intermittent low voltage coming out of
the power supply. Everything else seemed to be fine, but replacing the
power supply made the problems go away.

 

[Dan_Musicant]

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 13:53:13 +1100, "Rod Speed"

:>> Dan_Musicant wrote
:
:>>> Part number: ST3160023A-RK
:
:>>> Bought 08/13/2004 online at outpost.com, and it still has almost 4
:>>> years on the warranty. I've never lost a HD before, although I
:>>> RMA'd one that was getting bad sectors 6 months after purchase.
:>>> I've had over 10 HDD's. This was working perfectly, AFAIK and
:>>> suddenly a couple of days ago Windows 2000 doesn't see the drive
:>>> (Explorer). Disk Management shows it online but unformatted. So, I
:>>> suppose the partition table became corrupted. Is this an automatic
:>>> RMA? Can it be assumed that it's a hardware issue? Is it possible
:>>> for me to retrieve the data somehow? Or is that an expensive and/or
:>>> iffy proposition? Of the 3 HDD's in the system, this was the most
:>>> expendable in terms of the data. In that I was extremely lucky. I
:>>> used it mainly for backup and temporary work.
:
:>> There is a diagnostic utility on the Seagate site, download it, run
:>> it, and see what it says--if it says your drive is dead then RMA it,
:>> otherwise try to figure out if anything else is wrong, like a flaky
:>> power supply, before you assume that the drive is bad.
:
:>> If retrieving the data is an issue for you you need a better backup
:>> strategy.
:
:> I talked to two Seagate support guys this afternoon and they
:> recommended Seatools. I did run this a couple of days ago but
:> interrupted the full scan (over an hour). This time I run every test
:> including the full test. No errors were found.
:
:Then its unlikely to be the hard drive failing.
:See what Everest says about the SMART data.
:http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181
:
:> I have no indication of other problems with
:> the system, but maybe there is something.
:
:Something must have made it go unformatted.
:
:Is it external or internal ?

Internal. Part number: ST3160023A-RK

I decided to go into Disk Management (win2000) and create logical
partitions, 2 of them, like before, formatting one to NTFS, the other to
FAT32 (so my Win98SE partition can see it). I formatted the NTFS and
then the FAT32, but when the FAT32 was finished formatting I got a
dialog saying "Volume size is too big" !! I tried it again, same thing.
I went into Windows Explorer and clicked the FAT32 volume and Windows
said it wasn't formatted and offered to format it. I said OK and after
it was done, a dialogue popped up saying "The disk in drive H cannot be
formatted."

I figure I can boot to a Win98SE floppy and try using fdisk to delete
all partition information and start from scratch but figure there's
something quite wrong with the drive and that I'm just wasting my time.
I figure I'll call Seagate and see what they say. I anticipate an RMA.
:
:> My backup strategy is pretty good and in fact, I think I lost very
:> little - just one HDTV show I recorded over a year ago and never
:> watched. Big deal. If it had been either of my other two HDDs,
:> though, I would have been well backed up, but I would certainly have
:> lost some information. If my boot drive, I would have had to install
:> my 3 operating systems again. If my main data drive, I would have
:> lost some stuff, but 90+% of it is backed up on another HD.
:
:> If I'd lost more than one HD or all 3, I would have lost some data,
:> but most of the stuff that's really important to me would be backed up.
:
:It should be all the data that you'll slash your
:wrists if you lose, on CD or DVD at a minimum.

I always have that stuff backed up, and generally at least to a
different PC (in case a PSU blows up everything in the box), and I also
have offsite backup on DVD, which I do occasionally.
:
:> I'm formatting the drive as I type.
:

 

[Dan_Musicant]

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 01:04:11 -0500, "J. Clarke"

:I've had drives go flaky on me due to intermittent low voltage coming out of
:the power supply. Everything else seemed to be fine, but replacing the
ower supply made the problems go away.

This isn't a cheapo PSU, it's an Antec Tru430, and it's performed fine
AFAIK. That doesn't mean it isn't the culprit, but I figure otherwise.
Especially, due to the latest info - see the post I made 3 minutes ago
in this thread.

Dan

 

[Dan_Musicant]

:It is NOT a hardware problem. It is NTFS corruption.
:You didn't enable Win 2K large (137GB) drive support in the registry,
:and NTFS wrote past 137G which wiped the MBR and boot sector.

I have another HD in the box that's 200 GB and it has one logical drive
only, and is formatted NTFS. That's obviously not the problem. Also, the
drive was working fine for 1.5 years and I made no changes. The logical
drives simply disappeared from it, evidently data corruption. I don't
know what kind of corruption it is, but it evidently is preventing the
drive from being properly reformatted -- see the post I made in this
thread 5-10 minutes ago.

Dan


::> Part number: ST3160023A-RK
:>
:> Bought 08/13/2004 online at outpost.com, and it still has almost 4 years
:> on the warranty. I've never lost a HD before, although I RMA'd one that
:> was getting bad sectors 6 months after purchase. I've had over 10 HDD's.
:> This was working perfectly, AFAIK and suddenly a couple of days ago
:> Windows 2000 doesn't see the drive (Explorer). Disk Management shows it
:> online but unformatted. So, I suppose the partition table became
:> corrupted. Is this an automatic RMA? Can it be assumed that it's a
:> hardware issue? Is it possible for me to retrieve the data somehow? Or
:> is that an expensive and/or iffy proposition? Of the 3 HDD's in the
:> system, this was the most expendable in terms of the data. In that I was
:> extremely lucky. I used it mainly for backup and temporary work.
:>
:> Thanks for any info.
:>
:> Dan
:

 

[Dan_Musicant]

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 13:53:13 +1100, "Rod Speed"

:Then its unlikely to be the hard drive failing.
:See what Everest says about the SMART data.
:http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

Everest report that SMART data for the drive is all OK.

 

[Rod Speed]

Everest report that SMART data for the drive is all OK.

Post the full report, there is more that matters than just OKs.

If the SMART data is ok, you wont be able to RMA the drive.

 

[Rod Speed]

Internal. Part number: ST3160023A-RK

I decided to go into Disk Management (win2000) and create logical
partitions, 2 of them, like before, formatting one to NTFS, the other
to FAT32 (so my Win98SE partition can see it). I formatted the NTFS
and then the FAT32, but when the FAT32 was finished formatting I got a
dialog saying "Volume size is too big" !! I tried it again, same
thing. I went into Windows Explorer and clicked the FAT32 volume and
Windows said it wasn't formatted and offered to format it. I said OK
and after it was done, a dialogue popped up saying "The disk in drive
H cannot be formatted."

That may be a result of lack of 48bit LBA
support in the bios, just affecting formatting.

I figure I can boot to a Win98SE floppy and try using fdisk to delete
all partition information and start from scratch but figure there's
something quite wrong with the drive

I doubt it, bet it does work fine in a system with
48 bit LBA support in BOTH the bios and the OS.

and that I'm just wasting my time.

You certainly wont be able to get NTFS format that way.

I figure I'll call Seagate and see what they say. I anticipate an RMA.

I doubt it if Seatools says that its fine.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

That may be a result of lack of 48bit LBA
support in the bios, just affecting formatting.

Yeah, that must be it. Obviously it miraculously formatted itself before
he had this crash, or maybe the bios downgraded itself afterwards.

 

[J. Clarke]

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 01:04:11 -0500, "J. Clarke"

:I've had drives go flaky on me due to intermittent low voltage coming out
f
:the power supply. Everything else seemed to be fine, but replacing the
ower supply made the problems go away.

This isn't a cheapo PSU, it's an Antec Tru430, and it's performed fine
AFAIK.

I've had Antec, Enermax, and PC Power and Cooling exhibit this behavior.
Nothing lasts forever and everybody makes the occasional lemon. The
trouble with intermittents is that unless you catch it in the act you can't
tell.

That doesn't mean it isn't the culprit, but I figure otherwise.
Especially, due to the latest info - see the post I made 3 minutes ago
in this thread.

Have you tried zeroing the disk out using the manufacturer's utility?

 

[Dan_Musicant]

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 22:21:12 +0100, "Folkert Rienstra"

:> That may be a result of lack of 48bit LBA
:> support in the bios, just affecting formatting.
:
:Yeah, that must be it. Obviously it miraculously formatted itself before
:he had this crash, or maybe the bios downgraded itself afterwards.

I probably formatted it with Partition Magic 7.0. The fact that I
couldn't format my 40 GB FAT32 partition seems to be the result of
Windows format not supporting more than 32 GB for FAT32. Unfortunately,
the Windows didn't make that clear and it seems to me very very stupid
of MS. Anyway, I had no trouble making the drive OK now with Partition
Magic. A Seagate support guy warned me yesterday to steer away from
Partition Magic, but it looks like it's either that or be satisfied with
32 GB FAT32 partitions, so I did it anyway. It's the first such warning
I've gotten, and I suspect his motives in offering that info.

Thanks all for the help.

 

[Dan_Musicant]

On Thu, 16 Feb 2006 07:46:22 +1100, "Rod Speed"

:> On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 13:53:13 +1100, "Rod Speed"
:>
:>> Then its unlikely to be the hard drive failing.
:>> See what Everest says about the SMART data.
:>> http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181
:>
:> Everest report that SMART data for the drive is all OK.
:
ost the full report, there is more that matters than just OKs.
:
:If the SMART data is ok, you wont be able to RMA the drive.
:
I got it working now with Partition Magic. Fdisk wouldn't delete the
FAT32 logical drive. It appeared to, but it persisted. Windows was no
help as long as I wanted >32 GB FAT32 partition.

 

[Dan_Musicant]

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 18:42:06 -0500, "J. Clarke"

an_Musicant wrote:
:
:> On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 01:04:11 -0500, "J. Clarke"
:>
:> :I've had drives go flaky on me due to intermittent low voltage coming out
:> f
:> :the power supply. Everything else seemed to be fine, but replacing the
:> ower supply made the problems go away.
:>
:> This isn't a cheapo PSU, it's an Antec Tru430, and it's performed fine
:> AFAIK.
:
:I've had Antec, Enermax, and PC Power and Cooling exhibit this behavior.
:Nothing lasts forever and everybody makes the occasional lemon. The
:trouble with intermittents is that unless you catch it in the act you can't
:tell.
:
:> That doesn't mean it isn't the culprit, but I figure otherwise.
:> Especially, due to the latest info - see the post I made 3 minutes ago
:> in this thread.
:
:Have you tried zeroing the disk out using the manufacturer's utility?

I got everything OK using Partition Magic, because it supports
formatting a >32 GB partition to FAT32. You may be right that the loss
of data was due to a PSU aberration. I will be (hopefully) extra careful
with this drive to make sure I don't have info on it that isn't backed
up that I care about. I try to do that with all media, actually. I like
to think that I'm always on the cusp of a HD failure. Of course, in
practical terms that's hard to do, but I fared OK on this, my first HD
data loss incident in about 14 years of computing. In fact, I'm unaware
of having lost a single thing. Even the TV show I recorded last year and
hadn't seen yet I just found backed up on another HD.

 

[Rod Speed]

I got it working now with Partition Magic. Fdisk wouldn't delete
the FAT32 logical drive. It appeared to, but it persisted.

I wouldnt just ignore that, there's something
seriously ****ed there somewhere.

Windows was no help as long as I wanted >32 GB FAT32 partition.

Sure. What did you do about NTFS, gave up on it completely ? Thats not
a great idea with TV captures, they are too big for FAT32 most of the time.

 

[Rod Speed]

I probably formatted it with Partition Magic 7.0. The fact that I
couldn't format my 40 GB FAT32 partition seems to be the result of
Windows format not supporting more than 32 GB for FAT32.
Unfortunately, the Windows didn't make that clear and it seems to me
very very stupid of MS.

That isnt seen with XP, it doesnt even offer you FAT32 as
a possibility with partitions bigger than it will format FAT32.

Anyway, I had no trouble making the drive OK now with Partition
Magic. A Seagate support guy warned me yesterday to steer
away from Partition Magic, but it looks like it's either that
or be satisfied with 32 GB FAT32 partitions, so I did it anyway.

There aint just those two alternatives.

It's the first such warning I've gotten, and I
suspect his motives in offering that info.

You shouldnt, it can **** some configs rather comprehensively.

 

[Harkhof]

:It is NOT a hardware problem. It is NTFS corruption.
:You didn't enable Win 2K large (137GB) drive support in the registry,
:and NTFS wrote past 137G which wiped the MBR and boot sector.

I have another HD in the box that's 200 GB and it has one logical drive
only, and is formatted NTFS. That's obviously not the problem. Also, the
drive was working fine for 1.5 years and I made no changes. The logical
drives simply disappeared from it, evidently data corruption. I don't
know what kind of corruption it is, but it evidently is preventing the
drive from being properly reformatted -- see the post I made in this
thread 5-10 minutes ago.

Dan


::> Part number: ST3160023A-RK
:>
:> Bought 08/13/2004 online at outpost.com, and it still has almost 4
years
:> on the warranty. I've never lost a HD before, although I RMA'd one that
:> was getting bad sectors 6 months after purchase. I've had over 10
HDD's.
:> This was working perfectly, AFAIK and suddenly a couple of days ago
:> Windows 2000 doesn't see the drive (Explorer). Disk Management shows it
:> online but unformatted. So, I suppose the partition table became
:> corrupted. Is this an automatic RMA? Can it be assumed that it's a
:> hardware issue? Is it possible for me to retrieve the data somehow? Or
:> is that an expensive and/or iffy proposition? Of the 3 HDD's in the
:> system, this was the most expendable in terms of the data. In that I
was
:> extremely lucky. I used it mainly for backup and temporary work.
:>
:> Thanks for any info.
:>
:> Dan

Excuse me for butting in, but I'm wondering why you have to have FAT32 for
the partition in question? NTFS is much more reliable and presents none of
the partition size barriers or file size limits FAT 32 does. Also, as has
been said, PM can and does cause issues (in fact, I had 2 partitions
disappear on me several years back that were created in PM). If you MUST
have FAT32, your best bet (to maintain reliability) is to delete the
partition and reformat with a 98 boot disk (w/format command added to disk).

As to why the drive corrupted in the first place, did you use PM for the
original install?

Hark