Seagate RMA question

[igk]

Hi everyone,
i've never had to send a drive back, but i think i have to now. i have 750GB Seagate drive that is still under warranty. all of a sudden one day, i couldn't access the drive. it just says "file corrupted and unreadable". tried running chkdsk and it seems to get stuck at "step 4: verifying file data" for a long time and not finishing past 1%.

this drive was used in an external case for about 6 months without any problems before this.

Question:
based on that information, can i just go through the Seagate RMA website and print off the labels and send it back? i don't know what is wrong with the drive, and i'm not sure how to figure it out. i don't know if it is a physical problem with the drive vs something else? does that even matter?
will seagate just send me another one?

thanks for any advice.

[tmpz]

Hi everyone,
i've never had to send a drive back, but i think i have to now. i have 750GB Seagate drive that is still under warranty. all of a sudden one day, i couldn't access the drive. it just says "file corrupted and unreadable". tried running chkdsk and it seems to get stuck at "step 4: verifying file data" for a long time and not finishing past 1%.

this drive was used in an external case for about 6 months without any problems before this.

Question:
based on that information, can i just go through the Seagate RMA website and print off the labels and send it back? i don't know what is wrong with the drive, and i'm not sure how to figure it out. i don't know if it is a physical problem with the drive vs something else? does that even matter?
will seagate just send me another one?

thanks for any advice.

Before you RMA, download SeaTools for Windows/Dos and do a full scan. It might find errors and fix them (Full scan takes a few hours)

Go online fill out RMA form. You'll get instructions on how to ship. You can either ship it to Brampton or Texas. Once they receive it and a few days later, they will ship you a replacement.

You don't need to explain what's exactly wrong.

Did you have backups of it? See if you recovery some of the files... You're going to get a different drive.

[igk]

thanks. installed Seatools...
1) could not do a SMART check - it says "test unavailable"
2) could not do short or long drive selftest - again "test unavailable"
3) same for Drive information
4) passed short generic test

now, just started "long generic test"

it looks like the drive is screwed up...

[tmpz]

thanks. installed Seatools...
1) could not do a SMART check - it says "test unavailable"
2) could not do short or long drive selftest - again "test unavailable"
3) same for Drive information
4) passed short generic test

now, just started "long generic test"

it looks like the drive is screwed up...

At the end of the test, it might be able to recover.

[Zero1]

And if seatools can't work for you, you may have to freeze your drive in order to get your data back.

[insomnioe]

You might have to enable SMART for your hdd in your bios. This can give you some drive statuses and error codes.

[maniacshopper]

And if seatools can't work for you, you may have to freeze your drive in order to get your data back.

as long as your drive is detected and reads. It's a sector issue.
Mine died a week ago, BIOS no longer detects it, and putting in a enclosure didn't detect it either.

Freezing it, then take out of freezer, hook up to pc, wrap or put it down surrounded by really cold ice pack, make sure to keep dry. It's a one shot deal to recover the data. Once it's thawed, that's it.

RMA didn't take long, picking my new drive today.

[igk]

the drive passed the Seatools - long generic test, but i still can't access it. Seatools can't see the SMART info either. it can see the SMART on the HD that is installed directly to the motherboard. this HD is in an external Vantec Nexstar 3 case.
fortunately, there wasn't anything on the drive that i really needed. though i would have liked to erase some personal info before i sent it back for RMA.

I guess i'll have to send it in.

any other advice?

[magical]

word of advise, even if it did pass, if you are having problems like this, send it in, also if you bought it from NCIX and its been less than a year, they will exchange the drive for a new drive for you in there own RMA process, this will ensure you get a NEW drive and not a Reconditioned drive (the last reconditioned set of drives, the first one failed within 48 hours, the other was fine and the replacement has been fine)

Seagate does not verify that you have ran seatools and If it finds any errors, it isn't worth fixing IMO because technically if it went bad once whats stopping it from going bad again, back up your data and replace it immediately.

[Bomberman07]

word of advise, even if it did pass, if you are having problems like this, send it in, also if you bought it from NCIX and its been less than a year, they will exchange the drive for a new drive for you in there own RMA process, this will ensure you get a NEW drive and not a Reconditioned drive (the last reconditioned set of drives, the first one failed within 48 hours, the other was fine and the replacement has been fine)

Seagate does not verify that you have ran seatools and If it finds any errors, it isn't worth fixing IMO because technically if it went bad once whats stopping it from going bad again, back up your data and replace it immediately.

are you saying that if you send a drive to seagate, they won't check if the drive is ok or not and send you another one? or that they don't check if you have run seatools but run their own test?

[Riffer]

I suggest you test the drive connected to the motherboard. It could be the external enclosure that is the problem.