Savannah W-ITS

I previously posted about our friend Murphy - he has returned…   Stuff happens – all the time.

Seems like it was just yesterday that I purchased an external 1TB Seagate FreeAgent USB disk drive (I actually purchased the drive in February of 2009 – so I am seeing failure in ~10 months with modest use – not good):

• I only used the FreeAgent drive when I needed to make backups using a Windows XP machine
• the FreeAgent drive was carefully removed (via Windows XP remove) prior to each power down
• the FreeAgent drive started ‘rattling’…
• the FreeAgent drive can no longer be found by the XP machine
• the FreeAgent drive cannot be found on my Linux machine
• the FreeAgent drive just keeps rattling
• the activity light on the FreeAgent drive is NOT coming on…

I make a trek to the Seagate web site – move through the ’self-help’ which lands me on a curious screen.  Did you know that Seagate sells data recovery software and offers data recovery services? That was the end result of my self-diagnosis – the drive is trashed and ‘recovery’ is my only option for a ~$110 disk drive (Seagate software starts at $130…)  I also note that the replacement process requires both proof of purchase and ‘box decals’ and it requires me to send in the disk (with potentially sensitive data) for possible replacement or repair…   Hmm – I don’t think so.  BTW -  I still have the box which boasts a FIVE year limited warranty.

Ok, how do I get to this drive?   There are no screws on the case and everything has a snug fit.  After some searching I find a 2009 post with images at Gareth’s Random Blog of Fiddlings that discusses dissecting a similar drive.  Using this info was helpful but essentially, you carefully pry the cover off and the drive will slide out enclosed in a metal case.  To remove the drive from the metal case you pull off the rubber screw covers (which probably also serve as vibration reducers), remove the screws and carefully pull the drive out….

In case there is a ‘bad batch’ of Seagate 1TB disk drives – Some Drive info:

• Barracuda 7200.11,  1000 GBytes (1TB)
• S/N:  6Txxxxxxx (your number should be unique)
• P/N: 9FZ136-568
• Firmware: SD35
• Date Code: 09221
• Site Code: SU

Since this was my on-line backup drive I am replacing it with a 1.5 TB Western Digital disk and Dual, external USB/SATA compatible housing.  I will attempt to recover the data when the new hardware arrives.  At that point I will contact Seagate requesting a drive replacement (note that there is a warning about voiding the warranty on the disk drive, not the external housing…)

And yes, in case you were wondering I also have backups on DVD of data I did not want to loose. 

Stuff Happens – All the time - so at this point I am not bashing Seagate; hopefully, when this process is completed I will be able to compliment Seagate customer service (but it may be a while before I buy another Seagate drive…)

Related posts:

1. Visits from Murphy – recovering data from a failing hard disk I’m a fan of Adobe software (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.)  I...
2. Crash!PHP-mysql-wordpress-’canary mismatch’… Well it's been almost a month since I started this...
3. Sharing files/disk with virtual machines With a large, enterprise or cloud network it is common...
4. Sharing files/disk with virtual machines With a large, enterprise or cloud network it is common...
5. rm -f ../* – oops – how to recover? Whoops! You just ran: rm -rf ../* instead of: rm...