Seagate ST303204N1A1AS-RK 320GB Internal SATA 16MB Cache Hard Drive

This seagate hard drive has proved very reliable 4 me.
It hasn't had a hiccup since the day I bought it.

On paper, it's suppose 2 be a little faster but also noisier than the Western Digital hard drives.

My experience is that the differences really aren't noticable.

However, I always choose Seagate because of its 5 year warranty. (Western Digital has 3 years)

My experience with Seagate has been altogether different. I have never had a single failed Seagate drive that I can remember, & my first drive was a really old 20mb MFM unit.

I currently have 7 Seagate hard drives. One is this model, 2 are 250gb SATA drives, 1 is a 146gb 10k SCSI, 2 are 160GB SATA drives & the last is a 40gb PATA drive. All of the SATA drives have been in use 4 18 months now without a single problem.

One thing 2 note about SATA drives & Seagates in particular, is that they are sensitive 2 cheap power supplies & controllers. On the power supply especially, make sure you use a native SATA power connector & not one of the 4-pin molex 2 SATA adapters. The adapter is missing a power lead (orange) that is apparently very crucial 2 the Seagate design. I had thought I had a failing drive 4 a time & I traced the problem 2 the 4-pin adapter, which Seagate actually bundles with their retail drive kits. I replaced the power supply in the system with one that has native SATA connectors & the problem went away.

I know there are the occasional bad runs in manufacturing, but Seagate drives carry a full 5 year warranty on them. Our company uses Seagate drives exclusively & we install thousands of them each year. We would not use Seagate on that level of volume if they did not make a quality product.

I'd like 2 share my Seagate experience with anyone who is remotely considering purchasing a Seagate drive. I purchased a 250GB drive, it failed within 9 months.

The first RMA drive I received from Seagate ($20 my cost 4 shipping) was Dead on Arrival.

The second RMA drive I received from Seagate ($20 my cost 4 shipping) was Dead on Arrival.

The third RMA drive I received from Seagate ($20 my cost 4 shipping) was Dead on Arrival.

After complaining all the way up the corporate chain via "Community Relations" I received another refurbished RMA drive of a larger capacity (320GB). It worked.... 4 a while. I use the drive 2 run monthly backups. It's in a USB enclosure & the drive failed roughly the sixth time I turned it on.

I've begun the complaint process with Seagate yet again, although I doubt it will lead anywhere. I've also filed a complaint with my states Attorney General.

I work in I.T. & Seagate used 2 mean quality, but no longer is this true. I've done some research at work & it seems Seagate drives fail at more than twice the frequency of their competitors. RMA drives from Seagate have even worse reliability.

If your data is important 2 you DO NOT place it on a Seagate disk drive.

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