500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements !

plainman007 · 05-17-2009, 03:14 AM

I bought the 500gb seagate sata ST3500320AS a while ago.
It died in 1 week.
They gave me a brand new replacement.
Died half way through the intial format.

Is this model so completely screwed up or is it possible that my board might be causing this problem ? I however tested by using another drive (But 250Gb) in its place which seems to work fine and rules any problem right upto the cable end.

So i wanted to ask, is it possible than my board Intel DG33FB is not conducive to the size of 500gb or the buffer of 32mb ? It can take upto 4 sata drives and im using 3 drives of 250 gb (16mb buffer) each. The last available port was meant for this 500gb backup drive which ive never been able to install. Or is it that the power supply isnt sufficient to handle all 4 drives ?

On a side note. Ive read really bad reviews about this drive everywhere. Most of them seem to have failures or DOA situations. Just a lucky few have it running fine.

zsaz1029 · 05-17-2009, 10:13 AM

Quote:

On a side note. Ive read really bad reviews about this drive everywhere. Most of them seem to have failures or DOA situations. Just a lucky few have it running fine.

I think you've answered your own question. I'd suggest you buy a different drive.

plainman007 · 05-17-2009, 11:13 AM

Hmmm, but ive just used it for a week or 2. Im not exactly a millionaire to throw a drive that i hardly used for a few weeks. I would be glad to rather know if theres a chance the MB/Power Supply has a problem. Unless your going to ask me to buy a different MB too. Its ok to cut my loses and go ahead with another drive. But atleast when im sure that the problem isnt elsewhere. Imagine how dumb it would be to buy a WD or some other drive and have that fail too. That route would leave me worse than now right ?

**ctal** · 05-17-2009, 11:37 AM

Hi Plainman -- Sounds pretty likely that it is the drive once again. But a thought that occurs to me is that if you have an external usb or firewire hard drive (which I think you do), and assuming that internally it has a 3.5 inch hard drive with a sata interface, you could swap the suspect drive into that enclosure and see how it runs there. Or else put it into a different computer, if one is available.

-- Al

plainman007 · 05-21-2009, 10:21 AM

Hi Ctal ! How Are You ?
I have already tried the problem drive in another system. It wasnt recognized there too. I hadnt been recognizable anywhere since it dropped out on the initial format. All the external drives i have are usb slim drives which use laptop HDs and i dont have enclosures that use this kind of drive. Ive sent the drive back for replacement. And ill keep doing that till i get a problem free drive. If such a thing ever exists with Seagate now.

Thanks.

plainman007 · 06-06-2009, 10:28 AM

Ctal > Hi !

....I Finally got another repacement HDD. 4th replacement to be precise. But this time they've given me a HDD with only 16mb Buffer. The model is ST3500418AS. Have you heard of or used these drives anywhere before ? I read the link you gave me and a lot of people are saying the 32mb buffer drives have severe issues. Secondly why did seagate itself give me a 16mb buffer drive in exchange for a 32 mb buffer one ? I think if you suggest this drive i will stick to this even though its 32mb buffer. I am tired of having had to replace the drive 4 times over. Do you think its ok to use this drive ?

Thanks

**ctal** · 06-06-2009, 02:06 PM

Hi Plainman,

I would suggest staying with it. If you look at the user comments on it at NewEgg, at this url, you will see that although a significant number of people had drives that were doa, or failed soon after delivery, those who got working drives were generally quite happy with that model.

On one of my machines that I've done video editing on for several years, with Sony Vegas, the two video drives have caches of 8MB(!) and 16MB. The system drive is a 74GB Raptor with an 8MB cache. I've never sensed any performance compromise attributable to the small caches.

Regards,
-- Al

plainman007 · 06-07-2009, 01:05 AM

Hi Ctal,

I think ill just use this drive then. After all im not even going to use it as my video drive. Just as a backup drive for imaging the rest of my system thats all.

Thanks.

plainman007 · 06-07-2009, 07:15 AM

Hi,

I took the new drive and 1st connected it on my second system. It was recognized effortlessly and was formatted there too. No problems. I then disconnected and installed it on my main workstation. It doesnt even show up on the system or even in the BIOS menu !

What should i do ?

Thanks...

**ctal** · 06-07-2009, 08:55 AM

Wow, you really don't have any luck!

Well, I guess the obvious first thing to do would be to re-check the connections. And perhaps try it on a different sata connector, and with different cables. Then move it back to the other system to see if it still works there. Not sure what to suggest beyond that.

Good luck!

-- Al

plainman007 · 06-07-2009, 09:11 AM

Hi, Ctal !,

I was atleast lucky to find you online at this time.

. While i was just waiting for your reply to come thru i was tesing out the cables in combinatons and it looks like i found the problem. It seems like the power supply cable is where the problem lies. The new drive is being recognized with the other cables except it doesnt work while its on the 4th power plug. The sata cable tested out ok. Now theres 2 possible reasons. 1 the power cable has a fault. And im about to clarfy that by trying the 5th powerplug and last powerplug that comes from the power supply. Or reason 2 could be...that the powersupply isnt able to supply enough for the 4th drive ? Which also im testing out now. What do you suggest ?

**ctal** · 06-07-2009, 09:32 AM

I'd suspect that if the power supply can't power all four drives, that more than one of them wouldn't work when all four were connected. Also, the symptoms would likely be intermittent, depending on cpu utilization, etc. But it's easy enough to verify -- just disconnect one or two of the other drives, if your cable experiment doesn't lead anywhere.

Regards,
-- Al

plainman007 · 06-07-2009, 10:23 AM

Hi Ctal !

It was the powerplug at fault. I replaced it with a spare i had luckily and now all 4 dirves are recognized. It worked !

But the disk again seems to be working slow. I just ran HD Tune and the benchmark shows transfer rate minimum = 4.2mb/sec and max 4.3mb/sec and average = 4.3mb/sec. Access time = 14.6 ms. Burst Rate = 4.3mb/sec. CPU Usage 49.1%..

Arent those horrible values Ctal ????

**ctal** · 06-07-2009, 10:29 AM

Yes they are, aside from access time. The key to the problem may be the very high cpu utilization. Maybe something crashed. Try rebooting, and if the problem persists use task manager to see what is tying up the cpu.

-- Al

plainman007 · 06-07-2009, 10:31 AM

Are there any DMA modes or any internal settings to enable or something Ctal ?

05-17-2009, 03:14 AM	#1
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements ! I bought the 500gb seagate sata ST3500320AS a while ago. It died in 1 week. They gave me a brand new replacement. Died half way through the intial format. Is this model so completely screwed up or is it possible that my board might be causing this problem ? I however tested by using another drive (But 250Gb) in its place which seems to work fine and rules any problem right upto the cable end. So i wanted to ask, is it possible than my board Intel DG33FB is not conducive to the size of 500gb or the buffer of 32mb ? It can take upto 4 sata drives and im using 3 drives of 250 gb (16mb buffer) each. The last available port was meant for this 500gb backup drive which ive never been able to install. Or is it that the power supply isnt sufficient to handle all 4 drives ? On a side note. Ive read really bad reviews about this drive everywhere. Most of them seem to have failures or DOA situations. Just a lucky few have it running fine.
(Offline)

05-17-2009, 11:13 AM	#3
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements Hmmm, but ive just used it for a week or 2. Im not exactly a millionaire to throw a drive that i hardly used for a few weeks. I would be glad to rather know if theres a chance the MB/Power Supply has a problem. Unless your going to ask me to buy a different MB too. Its ok to cut my loses and go ahead with another drive. But atleast when im sure that the problem isnt elsewhere. Imagine how dumb it would be to buy a WD or some other drive and have that fail too. That route would leave me worse than now right ?
(Offline)

05-17-2009, 11:37 AM	#4
ctal Eschews Obfuscation Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Connecticut, USA Posts: 1,903	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements Hi Plainman -- Sounds pretty likely that it is the drive once again. But a thought that occurs to me is that if you have an external usb or firewire hard drive (which I think you do), and assuming that internally it has a 3.5 inch hard drive with a sata interface, you could swap the suspect drive into that enclosure and see how it runs there. Or else put it into a different computer, if one is available. -- Al __________________ "I didn't say I didn't say it. I said that I didn't say that I said it. I want to make that very clear." -- George Romney, in 1968, while campaigning for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.
(Offline)

05-21-2009, 10:21 AM	#5
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements Hi Ctal ! How Are You ? I have already tried the problem drive in another system. It wasnt recognized there too. I hadnt been recognizable anywhere since it dropped out on the initial format. All the external drives i have are usb slim drives which use laptop HDs and i dont have enclosures that use this kind of drive. Ive sent the drive back for replacement. And ill keep doing that till i get a problem free drive. If such a thing ever exists with Seagate now. Thanks.
(Offline)

06-06-2009, 10:28 AM	#6
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements Ctal > Hi ! ....I Finally got another repacement HDD. 4th replacement to be precise. But this time they've given me a HDD with only 16mb Buffer. The model is ST3500418AS. Have you heard of or used these drives anywhere before ? I read the link you gave me and a lot of people are saying the 32mb buffer drives have severe issues. Secondly why did seagate itself give me a 16mb buffer drive in exchange for a 32 mb buffer one ? I think if you suggest this drive i will stick to this even though its 32mb buffer. I am tired of having had to replace the drive 4 times over. Do you think its ok to use this drive ? Thanks Last edited by plainman007; 06-06-2009 at 10:53 AM..
(Offline)

06-06-2009, 02:06 PM	#7
ctal Eschews Obfuscation Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Connecticut, USA Posts: 1,903	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements Hi Plainman, I would suggest staying with it. If you look at the user comments on it at NewEgg, at this url, you will see that although a significant number of people had drives that were doa, or failed soon after delivery, those who got working drives were generally quite happy with that model. On one of my machines that I've done video editing on for several years, with Sony Vegas, the two video drives have caches of 8MB(!) and 16MB. The system drive is a 74GB Raptor with an 8MB cache. I've never sensed any performance compromise attributable to the small caches. Regards, -- Al __________________ "I didn't say I didn't say it. I said that I didn't say that I said it. I want to make that very clear." -- George Romney, in 1968, while campaigning for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.
(Offline)

06-07-2009, 01:05 AM	#8
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements Hi Ctal, I think ill just use this drive then. After all im not even going to use it as my video drive. Just as a backup drive for imaging the rest of my system thats all. Thanks.
(Offline)

06-07-2009, 07:15 AM	#9
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements Hi, I took the new drive and 1st connected it on my second system. It was recognized effortlessly and was formatted there too. No problems. I then disconnected and installed it on my main workstation. It doesnt even show up on the system or even in the BIOS menu ! What should i do ? Thanks...
(Offline)

06-07-2009, 08:55 AM	#10
ctal Eschews Obfuscation Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Connecticut, USA Posts: 1,903	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements Wow, you really don't have any luck! Well, I guess the obvious first thing to do would be to re-check the connections. And perhaps try it on a different sata connector, and with different cables. Then move it back to the other system to see if it still works there. Not sure what to suggest beyond that. Good luck! -- Al __________________ "I didn't say I didn't say it. I said that I didn't say that I said it. I want to make that very clear." -- George Romney, in 1968, while campaigning for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.
(Offline)

06-07-2009, 09:11 AM	#11
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements Hi, Ctal !, I was atleast lucky to find you online at this time. . While i was just waiting for your reply to come thru i was tesing out the cables in combinatons and it looks like i found the problem. It seems like the power supply cable is where the problem lies. The new drive is being recognized with the other cables except it doesnt work while its on the 4th power plug. The sata cable tested out ok. Now theres 2 possible reasons. 1 the power cable has a fault. And im about to clarfy that by trying the 5th powerplug and last powerplug that comes from the power supply. Or reason 2 could be...that the powersupply isnt able to supply enough for the 4th drive ? Which also im testing out now. What do you suggest ?
(Offline)

06-07-2009, 09:32 AM	#12
ctal Eschews Obfuscation Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Connecticut, USA Posts: 1,903	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements I'd suspect that if the power supply can't power all four drives, that more than one of them wouldn't work when all four were connected. Also, the symptoms would likely be intermittent, depending on cpu utilization, etc. But it's easy enough to verify -- just disconnect one or two of the other drives, if your cable experiment doesn't lead anywhere. Regards, -- Al __________________ "I didn't say I didn't say it. I said that I didn't say that I said it. I want to make that very clear." -- George Romney, in 1968, while campaigning for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.
(Offline)

06-07-2009, 10:23 AM	#13
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements Hi Ctal ! It was the powerplug at fault. I replaced it with a spare i had luckily and now all 4 dirves are recognized. It worked ! But the disk again seems to be working slow. I just ran HD Tune and the benchmark shows *transfer rate minimum = 4.2mb/sec and max 4.3mb/sec and average = 4.3mb/sec. Access time = 14.6 ms. Burst Rate = 4.3mb/sec. CPU Usage 49.1%.*. Arent those horrible values Ctal ????
(Offline)

06-07-2009, 10:29 AM	#14
ctal Eschews Obfuscation Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Connecticut, USA Posts: 1,903	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements Yes they are, aside from access time. The key to the problem may be the very high cpu utilization. Maybe something crashed. Try rebooting, and if the problem persists use task manager to see what is tying up the cpu. -- Al __________________ "I didn't say I didn't say it. I said that I didn't say that I said it. I want to make that very clear." -- George Romney, in 1968, while campaigning for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.
(Offline)

06-07-2009, 10:31 AM	#15
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	Re: 500 Gb Seagate HDD with 32mb Buffer keeps on dying ! Even brand new replacements Are there any DMA modes or any internal settings to enable or something Ctal ?
(Offline)

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