Is my Seagate drive dying?

[suklee]

Last night I left my computer on overnight (doing some bitcoin mining), this morning when I turned on the monitor I found that my Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3640323AS simply vanished from My Computer. After a reboot, it re-appeared, so I downloaded SeaTools and did a few quick tests which showed it was okay. It said I might have a firmware update available (I currently have SD13) but I wasn't successful in flashing using either the Windows or ISO option.

I checked my drive using Intel's SSD Toolbox, and it detected this error:

B8
Description: End-to-End Error Detection Count
Raw: 126
Normalized: 1
Threshold: 99
Action: Contact your reseller or drive manufacturer for assistance.

Edit: Just found this long thread on Seagate forums, so gonna give it a read and see if it helps.

Edit2: Successfully flashed firmware after changing BIOS from AHCI to IDE mode. However, the B8 SMART error still exists in SSD Toolbox.

 

[FAUguy]

Download HD Tune Pro 5.0 and have it run the Error Scan (full, not Quick). See if it comes up with any physical errors on the drive.

 

[suklee]

OK, trying that now, thanks.

Two new warnings popped up in HD Tune Pro :

0A Spin Retry Count
C7 Ultra DMA CRC Error Count

 

[FAUguy]

OK, trying that now, thanks.

Two new warnings popped up in HD Tune Pro :

0A Spin Retry Count
C7 Ultra DMA CRC Error Count

Was that in the SMART part or in the Error Scan?

 

[suklee]

That was under the "Health" tab, which I guess is the SMART part...

More than halfway thru the error scan, so far all looks Ok.

(Edit - scan completed, all blocks OK in HD Tune Pro)

Passed both short and long tests in SeaTools as well, so I doubt they'll let me RMA a drive that looks like it's on the verge of failing...

 

[truckerCLOCK]

If its under warranty give it a shot for RMA. Just go to Seagate's website and enter your serial number. I had a drive that passed all Seatools test but was "clicking" very hard/loud and it got RMA'd.

 

[BTA]

Yeah with my recent "luck" on my Seagate drives I'd say go ahead and RMA it if it's acting weird. Especially if it starts clicking.

 

[FAUguy]

That was under the "Health" tab, which I guess is the SMART part...

More than halfway thru the error scan, so far all looks Ok.

(Edit - scan completed, all blocks OK in HD Tune Pro)

Passed both short and long tests in SeaTools as well, so I doubt they'll let me RMA a drive that looks like it's on the verge of failing...

If the error checking passed, then it couldn't find any physical errors with the platters. But that doesn't mean there could be a problem with something else on the drive, such as the heads, motors, chips, etc.
If you are getting SMART error codes with several programs, then I suggest trying to RMA the drive if it is under warranty.

Last month I had two of the new Seagate Barracuda 3TB drives (with the three 1TB platters). Within a couple days they started a loud clicking sound and stopped being visible in the BIOS and the system stopped seeing it as a boot drive. I had to reconnect my old 1TB drive and use it as a boot drive, then once Win 7 loaded it could see the Seagate 3TB, but it still wasn't reliable (and had the clicking). So returned it.

 

[dbcooper1]

Any drive is dying from the moment you start using it; we're just talking about degree.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

SMART errors are definitely a reason for an RMA. They'll let you do it, I'm sure.

 

[suklee]

Alright, I'll try an RMA then. I have a spare 500GB hard disk, so I'll clone this D drive over to it and send the 640GB in.

What's an easy (and preferably free) way to clone drives these days?

 

[FAUguy]

Alright, I'll try an RMA then. I have a spare 500GB hard disk, so I'll clone this D drive over to it and send the 640GB in.

What's an easy (and preferably free) way to clone drives these days?

When I had the 3TB Seagate, there was a program I used from the Seagate site that had a disk cloning part to it. Im pretty sure it was SeaTools.

 

[Mark R]

The "end-to-end" error count is the number of times the drive has detected the following problem:
The data sent to the write mechanism did not match the data received from the computer.

In other words, in means that the data was corrupted while in the drive controller. This is an electronic problem caused by an unstable processor on the drive.

Theoretically, there are possibilities like bad power (or bad power connector), but this is almost always a sign of failing chips on the drive.

 

[jiffylube1024]

SeaTools is a good program to get for Seagate drive diagnostics as well.

Alright, I'll try an RMA then. I have a spare 500GB hard disk, so I'll clone this D drive over to it and send the 640GB in.

What's an easy (and preferably free) way to clone drives these days?

Me personally, I love Acronis 2012. You can't clone in the free version, but you can do essentially 2-step clone: backup to an image file and restore to another drive.

 

[billyb0b]

Good luck.... seagate's quality has gone down over the years. The only seagate drive in my house in a 500gb in my ps3. everything else is western digital and samsung