Seagate ST31000340AS 1TB Barracuda Sata 7200 Rpm 32MB Cache 8.5MS Hard Drive

I bought 4 of these 4 a RAID5 setup in September. So far I've had two of them fail. One was a hard failure in which the controller stopped working completely, & the other is showing a lots of seek errors in the SMART data & tells me its going 2 fail soon. They both started clicking the heads (a symptom of a reset because of an error) just a few days after I got them.

Seagate replaced the total failure within a couple of days after I reported it, & now I have 2 ship them back the failed drive. I bought a new unit I'm expecting tomorrow as a spare replacement, & I will be reporting & shipping back the drive with all the seek errors soon.

The drives have otherwise been great, but 50% isn't such a good reliability statistic, & that's my primary measure 4 a drive.

On the other hand, I did buy two other drives from the same family, two ST3500320AS drives. They have been working away flawlessly in my workstation in a RAID1 setup since I got them.

This is an OEM drive as several reviewers have noted, but this should be expected of any drives sold by Amazon unless the retail box is shown in the product description. This should not be a problem 4 most people since most motherboards come with extra SATA cables & most power supplies now have SATA these days, but if you need these items along with mounting screws opt 4 only drives sold in retail packaging. Now, about the drive. The drive is very quiet & works well once you get a good one. I had 2 reurn as many as I kept 2 get good drives. I think the reason is due 2 the poor packaging that others have noted. Drives that arrived in good working order were in sealed anti-static packaging with the black plastic end caps supporting the drives. The ones that were problematic were in anti-static bags but arrived only wrapped in one layer of bubble wrap or in syrofoam. One arrived in a plastic snap-around holder which was not even sealed. This was totally unacceptable. I have 2 think Amazon would find their hard drive return rate much less if they mandated their sources use acceptable shipping practices. The drive really is a 5-star device particularly with its 5-year warranty, but the shipping practices rate 1-star. That's why my overall rating is 3-stars. Two items of note: 1) Remember 2 remove the jumper on the drive 2 make it operate in SATA-II mode (300 mb/s vs. 150 mb/s), & 2) at Seagate.com you can download their SeaTools diagnostice program 2 checkout your hard drive but be forwarned. With version 1.1.0.21 of Seatools the Short & Long diagnostic self tests failed against my drives. I worked on this a long time thinking it was a motherboard or cable issue since the drive worked fine otherwise. I finially realized that the version of SeaTools on my othe PC was v1.1.0.19 & it ran without any problems!!! I called Seagate & got mixed answers. Initially one tech said "Drive is bad. Send it back 4 replacement". After figuring out that 1.1.0.19 works just fine, I called back. New tech said, "yes, we don't recommend running the Windows version since there can be interaction with the OS". I understand his comment but given that v1.1.0.19 works just fine, I'm inclined 2 believe Seagate needs 2 work on their Windows version of SeaTools. He recommended only booting the PC up in DOS & using the DOS version 4 better test reliability. Anyway, wanted 2 pass this along before anyone else goes down the SeaTools yellow brick road.

Seagate has always been my go-to brand 4 drives. A smarter friend of mine recommended them & I've been mostly successful buying only Seagate. I do have a few Western Digital drives (I always buy their externals because I'm a sucker 4 their design, but I've owned a few internals as well) & the Seagate drives have ultimately been more reliable.

I only have three of these drives, which seems like a lot when I write it here but it isn't. I mean, you have 2 use more than just one of the drives 2 get a feel 4 the quality because it's not uncommon 2 get a dud. I have yet 2 get a bad Seagate drive, but I've certainly seen some unhappy first-time customers who ended up with a dud & paid the $20 4 Seagate's immediate replacement plan. They always seem 2 think it's a rip off.

Well, if I got a DOA drive I wouldn't want 2 pay $20 more just 2 have a quick replacement, but if you have a drive that dies later in its life--any time within their 5 year warranty--Seagate will replace it free of charge. If you want 2 pay the extra $20 2 have an immediate replacement then it's a very nice option 2 have. If you're not backing up your computer and/or do not have any redundancy in your setup, that $20 option can make your life a lot easier if your drive dies. In my case, I used these in a Drobo so if one dies I'm okay & can wait until the replacement comes. I generally keep an extra drive around the house 4 when one of the drives inevitably fails.

You're going to, at some point, have a drive that dies. I've been very lucky in that I've only had one hard drive die on me in my entire life (aside from a DOA Maxtor drive I got in a Lacie external Porsche drive many years ago). That one drive was a Seagate 500GB drive. It died after two years of life & was one of the seventeen 500GB drives I bought from Seagate. It was in a RAID 5 array & I just swapped it out with another--no harm done. The others are still fully functional & in, at least, their third year. While I trusted my friend, I wasn't fully sold on the Seagate brand until having such reliability proven 2 me through use.

So far the three 1TB Seagate drives I'm using have performed very well. They're fast, they're so far reliable, & I've had no issues whatsoever with them. They work great in the Drobo (the newer model with FW800) & are safely archiving my data so the only thing I have 2 worry about is a natural disaster (or the unlikely occurrence that I lose two drives at the exact same time).

It's a hard drive so there's only so much I can say about it. I trust Seagate 2 continue manufacturing quality products. My experience has been very good with them & many of their drives. These 1TB drives are doing their job very well. Seagate's had a chance 2 refine their 1TB model & with prices as low as they are, I think it's a good time 2 adopt the 1TB drive over the 500GB drive. Overall, highly recommended.

Arrived in a box in another box held by typical drive black plastic end holders. OEM so no cable/screws or software. Downloaded Max Blaster 5 from Seagate site 2 clone original drive. Takes 3 hr 2 format thru windows XP drive management & 1 & a half hour 2 copy 200 G from old drive with Max Blaster. Had 2 change BIOS 2 see both drives 2 clone. Moved new drive 2 boot position. Completely disconnected old drive before first reboot on new drive.

Big & quiet. Five year warranty.
Much faster than my drives from just 3 years ago (though this is true with most new model Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, & Samsung drives).

I buy most of my computer parts, CDs, DVDs, books, etc online.
But I never buy OEM harddrives online. Every site with reviews has customers complaining about drives being DOA or, far worse, going dead two months later. And the reviews mention shoddy packaging.

Hard drives are delicate, the retail boxes are specially designed 2 absorb shock.

If you have a 1000 gig hard drive full of data, would you rather

a) have it been bought in a specially designed retail box that was delivered 2 a store as part of a large palette?

or

b) had it wrapped in bubble wrap, placed in a small individual box, & thrown around in several shipping warehouses before you got it.

The Barracuda 7200.11 drive offers the ideal combination of world-class technology & low totalcost of ownership. Highly leveraged from award-winning PMR technology the Barracuda 7200.11 Drive increases capacity per disk without increasing platter or head count. At the same time it enhances reliability by decreasing internal components & increasing magnetic stability at high areal densities.