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seahateHDD

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Posts posted by seahateHDD

  1. Finally got my comp set up right again with all software back an and configured in vista (in out the box as a prebuild) mostly anyway, still got to sort linux install and that's a pain since I will compile/build most from source and use a self compiled vanilla kernel too so it's time consuming. I have new comp (same model etc) as my warranty meant had to return whole rig as opposed to just the hdd.

    It's not a virus since I mainly use linux (slack based) and have avira (in vista too) and I do regualr housekeeping and scans. That was main net active OS at the time of my failure (dec failure, bought in nov), drive is thai on fw HP24. Behind hw/sw firewalls and due to set up and nature of my primary OS there is no way a virus got on without me letting it through and I don't open holes in security nor have I downloaded anything that could potentially contain malicious code so it rules that one out I think.

  2. Hmm I don't have parts yet but returning for replacement drive today (in 15min so I better get moving since I got to whip the network card out of this and bundle it all up since have to return whole rig :wacko: )

    I'm fine with basic soldering etc and have what I need for that, don't want us shipping though since p&p is usually high enough to bump price up to similar to UK and possibility of return or damage in transit makes more awkward. This country is backwards when in comes to technology (we got cd's late, we missed vcd completely, we missed quite a lot or got late)which is probably why prices high for "new" technlogy. I swear some places think electrical equipment works on magic as opposed to electricity hehehehe. Godd thing is about uk ignorance is sometimes highstreet stores price things wrong like a nvidia 9500gt 1Gb ram (or even lower 9 series) is higher price than 8800 512Mb ram because bigger number means better right!

    As for rs232 found out last night brothers mate ordered one whilst I was viiting him yesterday, independant of me. He came in an said I just placed order, being nosy I asked what he was buying, an rs232 module for doing stuff to a drive he replied.........wtf? Unusual coincidence. Still going to find cheap enough one if I can though in case new drive goes an might come in handy.

  3. looking around this seems to be becoming common. SD17 and SD18 seem to have same issues. Tech support at HP admitted they already knew about this so I presume they are working on it. I put a few things in other posts on seagate forums that got deleted that might be helpful. The identical 2nd drive is on HP24 (so I assume both are), I got a temp OS install running on this now. I presume it's just SD15 renamed or minor changes since they tend to just rebrand/rename manufacturers stuff (drivers too I've noticed their renamed drivers are identical to original like the sound drivers). This could be good news since if seagate don't address it but HP or some other big prebuild company who use them do then it could be a potential upgrade candidate for others.

    I got email back saying I've been upgraded to UK personal support (presume not in sat/sun), hopefully they will address it. If they do finding exact dfference between their fw and official seagates and what changes they made will mean it could be possible to use without modifying or at least request seagate to make same modifications. Failing that using hp version but stripping hp specific mods away for an unofficial fw might be good way to go. Any info I get concerning this once support get back to me that may be of use I can post here.

  4. P.S. I'm in the UK too and the cheapest (USB one) I've found so far is around £10ish on eBay, although I don't really fancy waiting 2 weeks for it to ship from China :}

    Let me know if you find any cheaper ones :hello:

    will do, I will check at my local electronics store too as they have tons of stuff dirt cheap, near or same internet prices so minus p&p often cheaper for me. If they have one or similar I buy there and ask where they got it so as to recommend to none local friend. I don't know how they manage it since they are old small independant store and stock all kinds of stuff, a real ecclectic mix. Each time I go in and ask for something from usual components to lighting gel or unusual converter they have it, and often at a quarter of maplins price.

    NOTE: For benefit of none UKers maplin is our main chain store for electronics that replaced most the smaller and independant ones. Their prices are very high and the staff often clueless, trained in sales and marketing as opposed to tech side. This is awkward since I'm self taught in electronics on need to know basis, I learn quick enough and can turn my hand to most stuff with effort but need instruction so if I have a rough idea but need details or need advice on method they just stare at me blankly or recommend something unrelated I don't need. At least they are not my nemesis PCworld, I believe our transatlantic cousins have even heard news of how bad they are :realmad: .

  5. Lol sounds good :ph34r:

    Trouble is I don't have any cash to spend on another HDD unless I get a refund then I can buy a Samsung or WD.

    Hmm I don't trust samsung, never used on basis of friends had casualties with them and seeing a high number of "deaths" on boards compared to other brands (death of HDD not the owners), higher rate than some others anyway. All manufacturers have some issue though. I always use WD in selfbuilds and always have. Not many have died before time (often going strong past expected life) but some WD are unacceptably short lived due to design. If you do, go with good model (goes without saying I know). I personally like the blacks but some of the others are ok. Still WD are not without issue either and have had fair share of problem (with interface board issues and so on) but IMO a safer bet than samsung.

    Unfortunately it's the nature of the technology, it seems to get less reliable over time too because bigger storage space means compromise in many areas. Obviously enterprise drives tend to be better but they also cost more and for many it might not be worth it.

  6. Since I am getting a replacement drive if it has SD15 firmware would it be possible to update it before it dies?

    Yeah I was wondering the same thing. I think the store is going to replace my whole rig which will leave me with same HDD models, and I have to deal with HP personally as for getting the HDDs changed since it was from costco they just distribute them. Obviously if replacement is a pain I don't mind spending a bit to get drives working should they fail again (and again and again hehehe like the antipode of those old 1980s memorex ad claims).

    I think I might compose a serious letter (with my tongue firmly in cheek) to seagate with suggestion of marketing the .11 line with "reliably unreliable" ad pitch and the choice of professionals when data integrity means so little. Hehe I always liked that guy who wrote joke letters to companies with such suggestions and compiled them in a book, many not so funny but the "waspard" mustard made from wasp secretions is classic hehehehe.

  7. I got pm on seagate forum from fatlip saying topic is moving here so he knows where it's moved to, guess he is busy and will appear and post sometime :) I don't want to fiddle too much with drive yet as getting replaced on monday and don't know where that will leave me warranty wise.

    A note on data backup seems very relevant. I am sure many know this so sorry for boring you but in case some don't I'm mention it. As for data I triple medium backup (and for years I thought this over cautious hehehehe). Word of advice though, don't trust CDR/DVDR as archive quality method of backup, datacan deteriorate after a year or two. Some brands are worse than others (I've only had probs with certain cdrs personally) but all homemade CDR/DVDR suffer from this due to method of burning the dark spots onto the media (like optical version of magnetic spot binary storage on floppy/cassette tape/ zip/HDD etc) not being as good as commercial process. The domestic method is a laser modified pigment (commercial is usually a physical process to create the dark spots, or it was last time I checked) and contrary to popular belief even expensive/quality brands are not immune (it's the nature of the technology not the quality of it).

    That said cheap 'n' nasty brands can lose data intergrity after just a few months. With this in mind check integrity of your cdr/dvdr every 6 months or so and make fresh copy at appropriate intervals, of the most important stuff at least. This isn't a guarantee that all will develop read errors in couple of years, it's just more likely to happen after this time, maybe you'll get lucky and they will still be working in decades. Even in a significantly none fluctuating ambient temp, low humidity, dark environment it can happen but light can speed up pigment breakdown.

    For me personally I'd rather be safe understanding that it's possible this can happen and renew disk backups (mainly raw format photos and 3d models and publicity files so it's a lot of data, photos in particular I cannot replace) since it only cost a few £ a year to do this. I also use an old pata WD120Gb drive that I plugin when needed to backup important stuff. I store this in a cupboard in constant suitable environ along with flash cards.I think the most important point is previous poster mentioned "off site" storage, this is very important. You can have a guaranteed 500year life archive with quadruple backups but what good is that when the office or house burns down or floods? Like the saying goes don't put all your eggs in one basket. The Anna Amalia Weimar library springs to mind.

  8. no a relative newcomer to the topic, MDG. Hehehe sorry I couldn't resist the name, I don't actually hate them I just feel it's a huge shame that they wont offer a solution or even just acknowledge the issue and state they are working on it. If they did then they would get more feedback from end users experiencing the issue giving them more info thereby making fixing the fw issue easier.

    On top of that ott censoring on posts and private messages from mods stating I wasn't contributing but just "whinging" etc etc. Fair enough to some extent I was I admit but am I supposed to be happy with being shafted. Hey my 6 week old drive with both OSs and recovery partition died and I cannot work for a week on that rig (my main work rig!), thanks seagate is probably more appropriate except I'm not that derranged yet (not for lack of trying hehe).

    Like I've said in posts I'm under warranty and contacted HP support (happened in my HP prebuild, I use WD in home builds) about this and asked for brand replacement on the 2 500Gb seagates at cost difference if need be. I am returning comp on monday to get replacement at store i bought from (thankfully I'm covered for 5 years) so not issue (other than minor data loss, most backed up), but not content since this could easily happen again. Hopefully seagate will address this issue so all users can have a solution rather than write off and switch brand. Wouldn't mind but the hardware is decent enough. I know wd are not perfect either but nothing of this scale on the likes of the wd blacks, only their slightly cheaper models have high failure rates (due to hardware design in many cases), even then often it can be predictable.

    As for multiple media data backup strategy dvdr/cdr is known to be unreliable for extended periods and not archive standard. I tend to backup temp stuff on flash and dvdr and my long term backups on HDD. Even then OS failure is big issue even if backed up as takes time to fix (especially since a lot of my linux install is compiled from source).

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