Western Digital & Seagate HD's

[Gilbert]

I have 2 seagate cheetahs, scsi, and 1 wd eide hd. I've had the wd for
about 1 year and already it is showing some bad sectors. Each week when I
run wd's disk utility, it tells me it found bad sectors.

I've had the cheetahs for 7 years and this year is the first time they are
showing bad sectors.

Are hd for home use like the wd drives the same for the most part? It is a
little distressing to see a hd start to decline after 1 year of use.

I bought a wd about 2 years ago and it failed right after it was out of
warranty. I confirmed it with their utility.

My machine has plenty of juice, antec 500w ps.

-gil

 

[kony]

I have 2 seagate cheetahs, scsi, and 1 wd eide hd. I've had the wd for
about 1 year and already it is showing some bad sectors. Each week when I
run wd's disk utility, it tells me it found bad sectors.

"About" a year? You should've RMA'd it immediately when
first bad sector showed up. If it only has a one year
warranty but is still within that 1 year period, RMA it
immediately.

I've had the cheetahs for 7 years and this year is the first time they are
showing bad sectors.

Retire them too. Drives should invisibly remap bad sectors,
if the scanning shows any that's typically a sign that
you're out of spares and the drive already has far more bad
sectors than reported in scanning

Are hd for home use like the wd drives the same for the most part? It is a
little distressing to see a hd start to decline after 1 year of use.

You can't really make assumptions based on a single drive.
Many people have WDs that run fine for years. Some have
Cheetahs fails. There's a certain percentage that fail and
it was just random (bad) luck it was your turn.

"Home use" does not mean "probably fails in a year's time"
though, the primary differences are RPM and interface type.

I bought a wd about 2 years ago and it failed right after it was out of
warranty. I confirmed it with their utility.

My machine has plenty of juice, antec 500w ps.

Are these drives sufficiently cooled? It seems you have an
abnormally high failure rate, but then again we don't know
the total population as you only mention the ones that fail
and a couple Cheetahs.

Since the other drive failed right after the warranty, and
this drive is failing right at a year, it would seem you're
jinxed. Perhaps a Seagate Barracuda with 5 year warranty is
a good idea.

 

[Clark]

The only thing to keep in mind about the WD drives is that the jumper
settings are a little different. If you were to run one set as master on
it's own IDE channel, it would do some funny things. Just bringing it up in
case there might be a problem in that area.

Clark

 

[Alceryes]

I have 2 seagate cheetahs, scsi, and 1 wd eide hd. I've had the wd for
about 1 year and already it is showing some bad sectors. Each week when I
run wd's disk utility, it tells me it found bad sectors.

I've had the cheetahs for 7 years and this year is the first time they are
showing bad sectors.

Are hd for home use like the wd drives the same for the most part? It is
a
little distressing to see a hd start to decline after 1 year of use.

I bought a wd about 2 years ago and it failed right after it was out of
warranty. I confirmed it with their utility.

My machine has plenty of juice, antec 500w ps.

-gil

If you're feeling adventurous download Powermax and run a full (not quick)
low level format. This will of course erase all data on your hard drives
(backup first). If any bad sectors show up after you reload the hard drive,
stick a fork in it...it's done.


On a side note has anyone else noticed that the newer Powermax (after 4.09)
won't test ALL hard drives anymore? I don't remember what HD it was, only
that it was an older one (probably over 5 years). The newer Powermax just
gave me a "contact manufacturer message". I downloaded the older 4.09 and it
tested the drive without a hitch...