Seagate 1.5TB HD showing as 500GB

[LoBatt]

Can you test in a different computer? Maybe it is a subtle
incompatibility...

Arno

Yes, in the works. Am working on a friend's computer soon (installing
Raptor as primary), and will use it to test. Has the same MB chipset,
OS, et al.

If his box reads it as a 500 it is going back to New Egg for shore.

Any recommendations on the replacement? I am impressed with the new
500GB WD Black Cav I am using as primary currently.

 

[LoBatt]

I'd go to Seagate's warranty URL and check the S/N of the drive
against Seagate's database:

http://support.seagate.com/customer/warranty_validation.jsp

- Franc Zabkar

Hey Franc, Seagate states "unkown, warranty could not be determined".

I purchased this from New Egg, which has an excellent rep here in the
States, and I would be surprised if they were passing fakes.

 

[LoBatt]

Maybe its just another symptom of what a steaming turd those drives currently are.

Yeah, all this digging recently has turned up some evidence of turd
indeed.

Any suggestions on a replacment? What do you think of the WD Black
Cav?

 

[LoBatt]

What is the origin of the drive? Is it an OEM version, eg HP, Dell,
etc?

Was purchased from NewEgg. They are pretty good with returns.

Soon I should have access to a friends computer with same chipset. I
will use that for a test platform. He also has a 750GB, that I can
test in mine.

 

[Franc Zabkar]

Hey Franc, Seagate states "unkown, warranty could not be determined".

I purchased this from New Egg, which has an excellent rep here in the
States, and I would be surprised if they were passing fakes.

I can think of two more ways to check the authenticity of your drive.

The first is to weigh it.

According to the "Barracuda 7200.11 Serial ATA" product manual
(100507013 Rev. C August 2008), typical weights are:

1500 GB models 720 grams (1.587 lbs
1000 GB models 677 grams (1.493 lbs)
640 GB models 543 grams (1.199 lbs)
320 GB models 405 grams (0.893 lbs)
160 GB models 390 grams (0.860 lbs)

The second is to use smartmontools to send the drive an Identify Drive
command. It should return 512 bytes of information which can be used
to identify it.

Here is an example for my 13GB Seagate HD:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/Smartctl/smart_debug.txt

- Franc Zabkar

 

[Arno Wagner]

On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:15:45 +1100, Franc Zabkar


Hey Franc, Seagate states "unkown, warranty could not be determined".

I purchased this from New Egg, which has an excellent rep here in the
States, and I would be surprised if they were passing fakes.

Very strange. You should possibly contact Seagate support
and tell them the whole story. The S/N being unknown would
indicate a faked or messed with drive. I think OEM drives
show up as such in the database.

Arno

 

[Rod Speed]

LoBatt wrote

Yeah, all this digging recently has turned up some evidence of turd indeed.

Any suggestions on a replacment?

I like Samsungs myself.

What do you think of the WD Black Cav?

I prefer Samsungs. I did buy WDs previously but got sick of their
stupid jumpering and found the Samsungs much quieter and much
cooler running too. The jumpering is no longer relevant with SATAs.

Main downside with Samsungs is that they are usually a bit slower to release
the biggest drives. You cant buy 1.5TB drives currently for example.

 

[andy]

Yes, in the works. Am working on a friend's computer soon (installing
Raptor as primary), and will use it to test. Has the same MB chipset,
OS, et al.

If his box reads it as a 500 it is going back to New Egg for shore.

Any recommendations on the replacement? I am impressed with the new
500GB WD Black Cav I am using as primary currently.

Samsung HD103UJ 1TB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB Hard Drive
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?src=eb&name=HD-1TBSA

 

[steve.p.wayne]

TO ALL READERS OF THIS THREAD

I know this is an ancient thread, but, to anyone that lands up here lookingfor answers to the 1.5TB drive being seen as 500GB, IGNORE EVERYTHING ON THIS PAGE!!

There is a HARDWARE fault with the 1.5TB drive which causes it to think it is a 500GB drive. As this is at hardware/firmware level, the drive IS actually now only a 500GB drive, which is why it shows up as such in Bios and all other hard disk utility programs.

The problem is only evident with motherboards that have the F3 recovery option in bios (shows up at boot down bottom of screen)

Seagate have released a tool in order to fix the firmware issue. This is the ONLY way to fix the problem.

It is possible that no damage has been done to the file system, depending on what the drive was being used for (boot drive or just data drive) it is however more likely than not, that the original disk partition information and FAT has been lost, so it might be necessary to recover the drive using proper recovery software once the firmware bug has been fixed.