Testing a new Seagate 7200.11 ST3500320AS

[dnd728]

I bought a ST3500320AS drive for my parents, so that they have more space. I formatted and then checked it with Norton Disk Doctor - all was fine, I took it to them, installed, cloned to it and in less then a day it died.
Now, it's a pretty long drive going back to restore + some of their data gets lost, and I'm obviously trying to avoid all that.
What would you suggest doing to the drive to test it as much as possible without actually causing damage?

Also, I noticed that while the disk part is just a tad warm, the PCB part gets quite hot - I can't measure it, but I can touch the hottest point for a few seconds before I start worrying about my finger. Although it's now 28C here outside, the drive itself is outside of my PC because the only place I can set it inside is with its PCB right against my hard drive, and the last thing I want is for my drive to die too.
When the drive goes to sleep it's all pretty cold.
Is this normal for this drive?

I do recall now one of the reviews saying something about the PCB being upside down, so they can later replace the PCB without questions...
Is my drive OK? Could it be an early defective batch? Can/should I do anything about it?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions on this!

 

[gpse]

I have the exact same hard drive, I never had any issue's with it. I never tested it, but it runs just fine, temps are a touch warm but nothing crazy.

 

[dnd728]

Originally posted by: gpse
I have the exact same hard drive, I never had any issue's with it. I never tested it, but it runs just fine, temps are a touch warm but nothing crazy.

Did you ever try touching the PCB? The middle especially.

 

[Unit1Evangelion]

I had the 500 and then now the 750. 500 burn out on me within 4 months of use and couldn't recover anything off the drive. Seagate replaced it with a 750gig and I got up to 250gigs before last night when it took a shit on me again. But this time it seems to be a bit different. Instead of burning straight out, my external case says there is something wrong with it. Though everytime I try reading it or recovering any data, it kills my laptop. Makes me question Seagate and their products now. I never had a problem with them before but this is sad.

 

[solog]

I was just over at newegg looking at the 320GB 7200.11 drives

Take a look at the reviews!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822148316

 

[dnd728]

Originally posted by: solog
I was just over at newegg looking at the 320GB 7200.11 drives

Take a look at the reviews!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822148316

Very sad...
I actually looked at newegg's reviews before and it seemed that all 500GB SATA drives with more then a couple reviews got 4 point avarages.
Reading further now, there is some difference, but I'm pretty sure I can't get any different drive now.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: solog
I was just over at newegg looking at the 320GB 7200.11 drives

Take a look at the reviews!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822148316

I'd seen those reviews earlier. It almost seems like Seagate used up a bunch of Maxtor controller boards in 7200.11 drives. Those Maxtor controllers were famous for running hot and burning up with little or no warning.

I doubt that's the case, but judging from the Newegg reviews (which I generally find pretty useful), it sure seems like there's a lot of quickly-failing Seagate 7200.11 drives out there.