Lost 1500 gigs - Thanks Seagate!

[dennispublic]

My 1.5 TB harddrive just blew after about 4 months... a few days after
filling it too.... Thanks Seagate! [Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS)
7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1.5TB] ... It's my own damn fault for going for
the best gig/$ deal I guess... and backing up that much stuff was not
an option financially... I always expected it to fail but I had hoped
it would last a year or two at least, by then I could update to raid 1
or buy a 3tb drive or something...

Anyways.... this piece of crap is still under warranty, and they will
send me another piece of crap to replace it... but I really don't want
to go through this again, I will never trust this brand now that I've
been assraped... I'm thinking the only way I can use the new piece of
crap their going to send me is if it is in a RAID configuration of
some sort.... RAID 5 looks nice but I'm sooooo not ready to fork out
another $300ish for two more 1.5 TB drives

What are my options - with redundancy and scalability in mind? Can I
just start out with some kind of 2 disk mirroring configuration and
then later add the third disk (converting to raid 5 here) and the
fourth and fifth in the furture? I guess I'm asking if you can convert
go from a two disk x 1.5 TB raid 1 setup to a three disk x 1.5 TB raid
5 setup without reformatting...

....my brain hurts, thanks Seagate

Suggestions welcomed

 

[Sjouke Burry]

My 1.5 TB harddrive just blew after about 4 months... a few days after
filling it too.... Thanks Seagate! [Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS)
7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1.5TB] ... It's my own damn fault for going for
the best gig/$ deal I guess... and backing up that much stuff was not
an option financially... I always expected it to fail but I had hoped
it would last a year or two at least, by then I could update to raid 1
or buy a 3tb drive or something...

Anyways.... this piece of crap is still under warranty, and they will
send me another piece of crap to replace it... but I really don't want
to go through this again, I will never trust this brand now that I've
been assraped... I'm thinking the only way I can use the new piece of
crap their going to send me is if it is in a RAID configuration of
some sort.... RAID 5 looks nice but I'm sooooo not ready to fork out
another $300ish for two more 1.5 TB drives

What are my options - with redundancy and scalability in mind? Can I
just start out with some kind of 2 disk mirroring configuration and
then later add the third disk (converting to raid 5 here) and the
fourth and fifth in the furture? I guess I'm asking if you can convert
go from a two disk x 1.5 TB raid 1 setup to a three disk x 1.5 TB raid
5 setup without reformatting...

...my brain hurts, thanks Seagate

Suggestions welcomed

All this is no excuse for not using backup.
Putting a second HD in an external enclosure,
and keeping a copy on that, is the way to go.
Unless you dont value your data.

 

[Conor]

...my brain hurts, thanks Seagate

Suggestions welcomed

Yeah...back up next time.

 

[dennispublic]

Yeah...back up next time.

--
Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't
looking good either. - Scott Adams

"backing up that much stuff was not an option financially."

Read before you state the obvious please. Sometimes you have so much
data it's just not possible to back it all up. Back to the point of
the thread - any suggestions?

 

[Mike Painter]

My 1.5 TB harddrive just blew after about 4 months... a few days after
filling it too.... Thanks Seagate! [Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS)
7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1.5TB] ... It's my own damn fault for going for
the best gig/$ deal I guess... and backing up that much stuff was not
an option financially... I always expected it to fail but I had hoped
it would last a year or two at least, by then I could update to raid 1
or buy a 3tb drive or something...

Anyways.... this piece of crap is still under warranty, and they will
send me another piece of crap to replace it... but I really don't want
to go through this again, I will never trust this brand now that I've
been assraped... I'm thinking the only way I can use the new piece of
crap their going to send me is if it is in a RAID configuration of
some sort.... RAID 5 looks nice but I'm sooooo not ready to fork out
another $300ish for two more 1.5 TB drives

What are my options - with redundancy and scalability in mind? Can I
just start out with some kind of 2 disk mirroring configuration and
then later add the third disk (converting to raid 5 here) and the
fourth and fifth in the furture? I guess I'm asking if you can convert
go from a two disk x 1.5 TB raid 1 setup to a three disk x 1.5 TB raid
5 setup without reformatting...

This is a Ford/Chevy debate.
If Seagate or any other drive manufacturer only put out bad product with
long warranties they would have been gone years ago.

In the early 80's there was a brand, Kalok, that did put out crap. They
disappeared from the market in short order.

A friend had one and he always claimed it only went half bad. However he
could not think of a good use for a read only hard drive.

 

[SteveH]

I will never trust this brand now that I've

been assraped...

Prat. It's a piece of mass produced machinery and like any piece of mass
produced machinery you're gonna get the odd rogue one - unfortunate, but
there you have it. And all manufacturers of hardware whether its hdd's
cookers or cars have this happen, its just the price we pay for cheap,
mass production.

What are my options

As the others have said, have a proper backup strategy.

 

[Ken]

My 1.5 TB harddrive just blew after about 4 months... a few days after
filling it too.... Thanks Seagate! [Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS)
7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1.5TB] ... It's my own damn fault for going for
the best gig/$ deal I guess... and backing up that much stuff was not
an option financially... I always expected it to fail but I had hoped
it would last a year or two at least, by then I could update to raid 1
or buy a 3tb drive or something...

Anyways.... this piece of crap is still under warranty, and they will
send me another piece of crap to replace it... but I really don't want
to go through this again, I will never trust this brand now that I've
been assraped... I'm thinking the only way I can use the new piece of
crap their going to send me is if it is in a RAID configuration of
some sort.... RAID 5 looks nice but I'm sooooo not ready to fork out
another $300ish for two more 1.5 TB drives

What are my options - with redundancy and scalability in mind? Can I
just start out with some kind of 2 disk mirroring configuration and
then later add the third disk (converting to raid 5 here) and the
fourth and fifth in the furture? I guess I'm asking if you can convert
go from a two disk x 1.5 TB raid 1 setup to a three disk x 1.5 TB raid
5 setup without reformatting...

...my brain hurts, thanks Seagate

Suggestions welcomed

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/news.jsp?DocId=207931

 

[John Doe]

"backing up that much stuff was not an option financially."

Then that stuff is worth little.

Let me guess... Downloaded video, movies, and music?

Read before you state the obvious please. Sometimes you have so much
data it's just not possible to back it all up. Back to the point of
the thread - any suggestions?

If your stuff is valuable, back it up.

Is this your first post to USENET? Hang around here and read
similar sad stories from other users, it will impress you enough to
learn the basics about computing.

Your complaint about the drive failing is valid, but you should
always have backup copies of important data.



--
Interested in making Windows and games obey your verbal commands?
Continuous command recognition (much easier than speech recognition)
can now be enabled using Naturally Speaking and freeware Dragonfly.
See (comp.lang.beta) for discussion.

 

[Benjamin Gawert]

* (e-mail address removed):

My 1.5 TB harddrive just blew after about 4 months... a few days after
filling it too.... Thanks Seagate! [Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS)
7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1.5TB] ... It's my own damn fault for going for
the best gig/$ deal I guess... and backing up that much stuff was not
an option financially...

So the data wasn't important which means the loss shouldn't be a problem.

Anyways.... this piece of crap is still under warranty, and they will
send me another piece of crap to replace it... but I really don't want
to go through this again, I will never trust this brand now that I've
been assraped...

Yeah, right. Just because your drive failed this of course must be the
case for every other drive from the same manufacturer as well.

However, in real life it means you just had bad luck and got a lemon.
This can happen with any somewhat complex piece of hardware. If I had
avoided every hard drive manufacturer that sold me a lemon then I would
have to go back to floppies and tape drives aready. Shit happens. That's
what warranty is for.

I'm thinking the only way I can use the new piece of
crap their going to send me is if it is in a RAID configuration of
some sort.... RAID 5 looks nice

RAID is no backup. It is a means to increase availability of a disk
subsystem, it is in no way a replacement for a proper backup on external
media (which includes a sane backup strategy as well!).

What are my options - with redundancy and scalability in mind?

Does your PC need to be running all day and night? If not then forget
about RAID, get one (or better more) external disk drives and do a
proper backup next time.

Benjamin

 

[Paul]

My 1.5 TB harddrive just blew after about 4 months... a few days after
filling it too.... Thanks Seagate! [Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS)
7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1.5TB] ... It's my own damn fault for going for
the best gig/$ deal I guess... and backing up that much stuff was not
an option financially... I always expected it to fail but I had hoped
it would last a year or two at least, by then I could update to raid 1
or buy a 3tb drive or something...

Anyways.... this piece of crap is still under warranty, and they will
send me another piece of crap to replace it... but I really don't want
to go through this again, I will never trust this brand now that I've
been assraped... I'm thinking the only way I can use the new piece of
crap their going to send me is if it is in a RAID configuration of
some sort.... RAID 5 looks nice but I'm sooooo not ready to fork out
another $300ish for two more 1.5 TB drives

What are my options - with redundancy and scalability in mind? Can I
just start out with some kind of 2 disk mirroring configuration and
then later add the third disk (converting to raid 5 here) and the
fourth and fifth in the furture? I guess I'm asking if you can convert
go from a two disk x 1.5 TB raid 1 setup to a three disk x 1.5 TB raid
5 setup without reformatting...

...my brain hurts, thanks Seagate

Suggestions welcomed

There were firmware issues with some Seagate drives.

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&message.id=10019

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&message.id=11298#M11298

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&message.id=3669

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&message.id=4105#M4105

I recommend talking to a human at Seagate, to see what your options are.
The web site may not acknowledge a particular problem, even if the
forum users are seeing the same problem.

This may not be an ordinary failure. If the drive is no longer
responding though, I don't think you can change firmware on it.
If the drive won't finish initialization, it may take some other
physical connection to the controller, to reprogram the firmware.
The Seagate support people, may be able to answer that question.

*******

In terms of RAID configurations, if I owned a 1.5TB drive, I would
purchase a second 1.5TB drive, and build a mirror. The benefit of that,
is the array capacity is less than 2TB, so is still bootable. For
array configurations larger than 2TB, I recommend more and careful
research.

I've run into one person, who set up a 3TB array, and
when they had just over 2TB written to it, the file system got
corrupted. So trouble awaits, if you make your array configuration
too large. I would do plenty of careful testing, in any case, before
putting data on monsters like that. One way to create large files
for testing, is with something like the "dd" command. (There is a
port of "dd" for Windows.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

In terms of RAID migration, proper RAID controller cards
support things like that. Some motherboard soft RAIDs
also support migration. For example, Mediashield migration is
on PDF page 43 here. Intel may have migration features too,
but not exactly like Nvidia.

NVMediaShield_UGv6.pdf
http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_32130.html

"Migrating to an Array Larger Than 2 TB

Your disks must be partitioned using the GUID partition table (GPT)
if you plan to migrate to an array with greater than 2 TB storage.
If your original array is not a GPT disk and you expand your array’s
capacity using the migration feature to over 2 TB, you will not be
able to access the additional storage above 2 TB in the new array.
To use the additional storage in this situation, back up your data,
repartition the array using GPT, then restore your data to the new
volume. Note: Be sure to make the volume dynamic if you plan to have
more than four partitions."

Life is more complicated, when you make big storage systems.

Paul

 

[Flasherly]

...my brain hurts, thanks Seagate

Suggestions welcomed

Ow, ow. A diehard Seagate fan, close enough, since the 200G pricing
ranges (several still running strong), this time up, though, things
were different. Whatever the issue discussed avidly (pro/con) on the
tech forums - Seagate's regardless under close scrutiny. An issue
that, hindsightedly, even clipped my last Seagate, 600G (over $100US
at time, too), where I found that model number within "suspect"
listings of Seagate ROM issue. Thankfully, no problems -- purely
storage and formatted straight-out, full NTFS.

Enough of that.

I bought a WD non-green 750G when dollar averaging in last time for
$70-ish. Not a "big" WD fan, either, but what's the alternative... if
it's no longer an integrity game... Everybody is practically selling
1-yr warranted drives now. I'd don't mind being shaved a few bucks
for a 3-year "put your warranty behind you mouth" assurances, and
reputation, for quality. Ain't happening, though. As other's are
saying -- only assurances going is at double-down, twice the price:
once for a friggin' working drive and another one just in case it's a
piece of 3-world marketed profit taking.

Remember and don't forget Seagates at 20MEG, I always say, 20MEG RLL
and MFM interfaces for initially $350. Hot at the time. Moving along
into IDE interfaces, inevitably, Seagates weren't actually Seagate,
any more, but SEASNAKE. For quite some time, too.

Moral of the story: It's not a bleedin' edge for nothing.

 

[dennispublic]

My 1.5 TB harddrive just blew after about 4 months... a few days after
filling it too.... Thanks Seagate! [Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS)
7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1.5TB] ... It's my own damn fault for going for
the best gig/$ deal I guess... and backing up that much stuff was not
an option financially...  I always expected it to fail but I had hoped
it would last a year or two at least, by then I could update to raid 1
or buy a 3tb drive or something...

Anyways.... this piece of crap is still under warranty, and they will
send me another piece of crap to replace it... but I really don't want
to go through this again, I will never trust this brand now that I've
been assraped... I'm thinking the only way I can use the new piece of
crap their going to send me is if it is in a RAID configuration of
some sort.... RAID 5 looks nice but I'm sooooo not ready to fork out
another $300ish for two more 1.5 TB drives

What are my options - with redundancy and scalability in mind?  Can I
just start out with some kind of 2 disk mirroring configuration and
then later add the third disk (converting to raid 5 here) and the
fourth and fifth in the furture? I guess I'm asking if you can convert
go from a two disk x 1.5 TB raid 1 setup to a three disk x 1.5 TB raid
5 setup without reformatting...

...my brain hurts, thanks Seagate

Suggestions welcomed

There were firmware issues with some Seagate drives.

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&messa....

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&messa....

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&messa....

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&messa....

I recommend talking to a human at Seagate, to see what your options are.
The web site may not acknowledge a particular problem, even if the
forum users are seeing the same problem.

This may not be an ordinary failure. If the drive is no longer
responding though, I don't think you can change firmware on it.
If the drive won't finish initialization, it may take some other
physical connection to the controller, to reprogram the firmware.
The Seagate support people, may be able to answer that question.

*******

In terms of RAID configurations, if I owned a 1.5TB drive, I would
purchase a second 1.5TB drive, and build a mirror. The benefit of that,
is the array capacity is less than 2TB, so is still bootable. For
array configurations larger than 2TB, I recommend more and careful
research.

I've run into one person, who set up a 3TB array, and
when they had just over 2TB written to it, the file system got
corrupted. So trouble awaits, if you make your array configuration
too large. I would do plenty of careful testing, in any case, before
putting data on monsters like that. One way to create large files
for testing, is with something like the "dd" command. (There is a
port of "dd" for Windows.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

In terms of RAID migration, proper RAID controller cards
support things like that. Some motherboard soft RAIDs
also support migration. For example, Mediashield migration is
on PDF page 43 here. Intel may have migration features too,
but not exactly like Nvidia.

NVMediaShield_UGv6.pdfhttp://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_32130.html

    "Migrating to an Array Larger Than 2 TB

     Your disks must be partitioned using the GUID partition table (GPT)
     if you plan to migrate to an array with greater than 2 TB storage.
     If your original array is not a GPT disk and you expand your array’s
     capacity using the migration feature to over 2 TB, you will not be
     able to access the additional storage above 2 TB in the new array.
     To use the additional storage in this situation, back up your data,
     repartition the array using GPT, then restore your data to thenew
     volume. Note: Be sure to make the volume dynamic if you plan to have
     more than four partitions."

Life is more complicated, when you make big storage systems.

    Paul- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

* I'm the original poster *

Thanks Paul, your post goes beyond the "back up your stuff" standard
(useless) response..... the info is appreciated.

1.5 TB is not alot these days guys, particularily when you're dealing
with raw video.... We have over 16 TB here spread over maybe two dozen
hd's, it's grown randomly and without planning over the years.... Some
(most?) of these HD's have been running 24-7 for 5+ years... some is
backed up, some of it is raid, some isnt.... the stuff on that drive
was not terribly valuable, mostly raw mpeg... any valuable video has
been transcoded and transfered.... BUT... i'm still VERY pissed that
failures after 4-6 months for this cheapo model are STANDARD according
to the reviews i've seen.... but mostly I'm pissed that Seagate is
forcing me to receive this same model from their warrenty even when I
requested a more reliable model OF LESSER VALUE.... **** you and your
1.5 TB Seagate!

I like what "(e-mail address removed)" said in a previous post: "It's not
a bleedin' edge for nothing" ... if you go on Newegg and read
some reviews you'll see 25% or more people rate this model as
HORRIBLE... 1 in 4 failures? Totally unacceptable... I think I'll
be trying to stick to the drives that only have 5-10% "horrible"
ratings from now on.... Granted it's not an exact science, but in
general it's a good indication.... THE SEAGATE 1.5TB IS A CRAPPY
CRAPPY DRIVE..... WD..... WD.... WD.....

With all that said.. my post was about moving forward, not "1980 style
backups for dummies".... I am now forced to back up even this raw data
since we're getting a 1.5 TB free from the warranty but I consider it
a TICKING TIME BOMB.... I am forced to go raid 1 or raid 5 because I
don't trust this model of "McHARDDRIVE"..... but I'm also trying to
look 1-3 (or 10) years forward.... within 6 months I will need to have
more then 1.5 tb on this set of disks... I'd love to be able to just
keep slapping drives in there.... I'd love to start out with mirroring
then move to raid 5 without a reformat..... and I'd love for all this
to be portable.... a RAID 5 enclosure would be sweet.... but I'm on a
serious budget...... so these are all the things on my mind..... I
thought this might be a good place to get some advice.... was I wrong?















and compare this 1500 TB to the (very few) competitors you get the
drift... if you compare seagate in general to WD you get the drift.

 

[John Doe]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:

....

Thanks Paul, your post goes beyond the "back up your stuff"
standard (useless) response.....

All advice given here is satisfaction guaranteed. Feel free to file
a complaint.

if you go on Newegg and read some reviews you'll see 25% or more
people rate this model as HORRIBLE...

Regulars here already know enough to look at reviews before buying.

1 in 4 failures? Totally unacceptable...

You are still missing the point. Does not matter how reliable, any
hard drive can fail at any time.

I thought this might be a good place to get some advice.... was I
wrong?

Try this group.
24hoursupport.helpdesk
They are much more helpful, if you can stand all of the smiley face
crap.

 

[GMAN]

My 1.5 TB harddrive just blew after about 4 months... a few days after
filling it too.... Thanks Seagate! [Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS)
7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1.5TB] ... It's my own damn fault for going for
the best gig/$ deal I guess... and backing up that much stuff was not
an option financially... I always expected it to fail but I had hoped
it would last a year or two at least, by then I could update to raid 1
or buy a 3tb drive or something...

Anyways.... this piece of crap is still under warranty, and they will
send me another piece of crap to replace it... but I really don't want
to go through this again, I will never trust this brand now that I've
been assraped... I'm thinking the only way I can use the new piece of
crap their going to send me is if it is in a RAID configuration of
some sort.... RAID 5 looks nice but I'm sooooo not ready to fork out
another $300ish for two more 1.5 TB drives

What are my options - with redundancy and scalability in mind? Can I
just start out with some kind of 2 disk mirroring configuration and
then later add the third disk (converting to raid 5 here) and the
fourth and fifth in the furture? I guess I'm asking if you can convert
go from a two disk x 1.5 TB raid 1 setup to a three disk x 1.5 TB raid
5 setup without reformatting...

....my brain hurts, thanks Seagate

Suggestions welcomed

OMFG!!!!! It has only been 6+ months that Seagate has had a firmware update
to prevent this from happening and you are blaming them for not notifying you?

I have two of those same drives and applied the fix day one!

I also have 750 GB unit.

BTW, the data is still there and they offer a free recovery for you if you
contact Seagate!!!!!!!!!! That is of course if you didnt freak out like a baby
and immediately reformat the drive.

 

[GMAN]

"backing up that much stuff was not an option financially."

Your data wasnt worth an extra $119 ????? WTF?

 

[GMAN]

My 1.5 TB harddrive just blew after about 4 months... a few days after
filling it too.... Thanks Seagate! [Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS)
7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1.5TB] ... It's my own damn fault for going for
the best gig/$ deal I guess... and backing up that much stuff was not
an option financially... I always expected it to fail but I had hoped
it would last a year or two at least, by then I could update to raid 1
or buy a 3tb drive or something...

Anyways.... this piece of crap is still under warranty, and they will
send me another piece of crap to replace it... but I really don't want
to go through this again, I will never trust this brand now that I've
been assraped... I'm thinking the only way I can use the new piece of
crap their going to send me is if it is in a RAID configuration of
some sort.... RAID 5 looks nice but I'm sooooo not ready to fork out
another $300ish for two more 1.5 TB drives

What are my options - with redundancy and scalability in mind? Can I
just start out with some kind of 2 disk mirroring configuration and
then later add the third disk (converting to raid 5 here) and the
fourth and fifth in the furture? I guess I'm asking if you can convert
go from a two disk x 1.5 TB raid 1 setup to a three disk x 1.5 TB raid
5 setup without reformatting...

....my brain hurts, thanks Seagate

Suggestions welcomed

Seagate will recover the data for you, contact them at
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/contact_us/


Read this below!!!!



http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931

A firmware issue has been identified that affects a small number of Seagate
Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive models which may result in data becoming
inaccessible after a power-off/on operation. The affected products are
Barracuda 7200.11, Barracuda ES.2 SATA, and DiamondMax 22.

Analysis of actual field return data indicates there is a low risk, however,
as part of our commitment to customer satisfaction Seagate is offering a free
firmware upgrade which you can download by following the instructions below.

In the event your drive is affected and you cannot access your data after a
power cycle, the data still resides on the drive and there is no data loss
associated with this issue. If your drive is no longer accessible, click here
to contact Seagate directly for further assistance. If the inaccessible drive
is in a RAID array, there may be limitations to the recovery and reinstatement
of your drive, please consult with your Seagate agent for details.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/contact_us/

 

[Benjamin Gawert]

* (e-mail address removed):

With all that said.. my post was about moving forward, not "1980 style
backups for dummies".... I am now forced to back up even this raw data
since we're getting a 1.5 TB free from the warranty but I consider it
a TICKING TIME BOMB.... I am forced to go raid 1 or raid 5 because I
don't trust this model of "McHARDDRIVE"..... but I'm also trying to
look 1-3 (or 10) years forward.... within 6 months I will need to have
more then 1.5 tb on this set of disks... I'd love to be able to just
keep slapping drives in there.... I'd love to start out with mirroring
then move to raid 5 without a reformat..... and I'd love for all this
to be portable.... a RAID 5 enclosure would be sweet.... but I'm on a
serious budget...... so these are all the things on my mind..... I
thought this might be a good place to get some advice.... was I wrong?

If you are really interested in well advice (which I strongly doubt)
then this is the right newsgroup. However, if all you were looking for
was people confirming that Seagate is a product from hell and just sux
then you're wrong.

Fact is that you irgnored some really basic things which are important
for handling data. You can of course continue to ignore all advice that
has been given you regarding proper backup and RAID, and probably ****
up again big time.

Benjamin

 

[Benjamin Gawert]

* (e-mail address removed):

With all that said.. my post was about moving forward, not "1980 style
backups for dummies".... I am now forced to back up even this raw data
since we're getting a 1.5 TB free from the warranty but I consider it
a TICKING TIME BOMB.... I am forced to go raid 1 or raid 5 because I
don't trust this model of "McHARDDRIVE"..... but I'm also trying to
look 1-3 (or 10) years forward.... within 6 months I will need to have
more then 1.5 tb on this set of disks... I'd love to be able to just
keep slapping drives in there.... I'd love to start out with mirroring
then move to raid 5 without a reformat..... and I'd love for all this
to be portable.... a RAID 5 enclosure would be sweet.... but I'm on a
serious budget...... so these are all the things on my mind..... I
thought this might be a good place to get some advice.... was I wrong?

If you were really interested in competent advice (which I strongly
doubt) then this is a good place to ask. However, if all you was looking
for is people confirming that Seagate is a product from hell and just
sux then you're wrong. This is not alt.comp.hardware.confirm.my.ego.

Fact is that you irgnored some really simple and basic things which are
important when handling data. Yes, Seagate gave you a defect hard drive,
but it's you who messed up in caring for your data properly. Hard drives
are always prone to die, and not always they warn you in advance that
they are going to stop working. People here are not recommending backup
for nothing. You can of course continue to ignore all advice that has
been given you regarding proper backup and RAID which you find useless,
and very likely **** up your data again in the future.

Benjamin

 

[spodosaurus]

My 1.5 TB harddrive just blew after about 4 months... a few days after
filling it too.... Thanks Seagate! [Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS)
7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1.5TB] ... It's my own damn fault for going for
the best gig/$ deal I guess... and backing up that much stuff was not
an option financially...

Don't blame seagate: if you don't back up your data it's your own fault.

I always expected it to fail but I had hoped
it would last a year or two at least, by then I could update to raid 1
or buy a 3tb drive or something...

Drives fail - it's the price we pay for having economical data storage.
If you want a drive manufactured and tested to the point where it will
remain patent for 5 years 99.9% of the time, you're going to be paying
massively more per drive. Backups remove the necessity for that.

Anyways.... this piece of crap is still under warranty, and they will
send me another piece of crap to replace it... but I really don't want
to go through this again, I will never trust this brand now that I've
been assraped...

You did it to yourself and you enjoyed it.

I'm thinking the only way I can use the new piece of
crap their going to send me is if it is in a RAID configuration of
some sort.... RAID 5 looks nice but I'm sooooo not ready to fork out
another $300ish for two more 1.5 TB drives

What are my options - with redundancy and scalability in mind? Can I
just start out with some kind of 2 disk mirroring configuration and
then later add the third disk (converting to raid 5 here) and the
fourth and fifth in the furture? I guess I'm asking if you can convert
go from a two disk x 1.5 TB raid 1 setup to a three disk x 1.5 TB raid
5 setup without reformatting...

...my brain hurts, thanks Seagate

Suggestions welcomed

Suggestions:

1. Stop acting like a drama queen. You're frustrated, we get it, but
enough already.

2. Backup your data

3. Buy a second 1.5 drive and put it in an external enclosure: always
store backups away from the PC. A RAID configuration is NOT a backup.
RAID is good for when you need to hot swap a drive back in and have it
auto-repopulate. It is NOT a backup method. A PSU failure, burglary, etc
can remove all the drives in the PC's case at once so having a backup
elsewhere is vital.

Good luck,

Ari


--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply
Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow transplant. Please
volunteer to be a marrow donor and literally save someone's life:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[spodosaurus]

My 1.5 TB harddrive just blew after about 4 months... a few days after
filling it too.... Thanks Seagate! [Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS)
7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1.5TB] ... It's my own damn fault for going for
the best gig/$ deal I guess... and backing up that much stuff was not
an option financially... I always expected it to fail but I had hoped
it would last a year or two at least, by then I could update to raid 1
or buy a 3tb drive or something...

Anyways.... this piece of crap is still under warranty, and they will
send me another piece of crap to replace it... but I really don't want
to go through this again, I will never trust this brand now that I've
been assraped... I'm thinking the only way I can use the new piece of
crap their going to send me is if it is in a RAID configuration of
some sort.... RAID 5 looks nice but I'm sooooo not ready to fork out
another $300ish for two more 1.5 TB drives

What are my options - with redundancy and scalability in mind? Can I
just start out with some kind of 2 disk mirroring configuration and
then later add the third disk (converting to raid 5 here) and the
fourth and fifth in the furture? I guess I'm asking if you can convert
go from a two disk x 1.5 TB raid 1 setup to a three disk x 1.5 TB raid
5 setup without reformatting...

....my brain hurts, thanks Seagate

Suggestions welcomed

Seagate will recover the data for you, contact them at
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/contact_us/


Read this below!!!!



http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931

A firmware issue has been identified that affects a small number of Seagate
Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive models which may result in data becoming
inaccessible after a power-off/on operation. The affected products are
Barracuda 7200.11, Barracuda ES.2 SATA, and DiamondMax 22.

Analysis of actual field return data indicates there is a low risk, however,
as part of our commitment to customer satisfaction Seagate is offering a free
firmware upgrade which you can download by following the instructions below.

In the event your drive is affected and you cannot access your data after a
power cycle, the data still resides on the drive and there is no data loss
associated with this issue. If your drive is no longer accessible, click here
to contact Seagate directly for further assistance. If the inaccessible drive
is in a RAID array, there may be limitations to the recovery and reinstatement
of your drive, please consult with your Seagate agent for details.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/contact_us/

Good find GMAN, cheers.

--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply
Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow transplant. Please
volunteer to be a marrow donor and literally save someone's life:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/