Free Agent (Seagate) external hard drive

[Max Murdoc]

1.5 tera failed this morning. I bought 2 of these before Christmas and this is the backup one. Dead...no power light, just a short buzzing noise and the computer doesn't recognize it. Now I'm concerned about the other one.

So, in 2 years I have lost 2 external hard drives. A Western Digital 500 gig and now this Seagate. I could understand if I was throwing the damned things around but all I do is let it sit there and do it's job.

Well, I hope that the failure is due to a chip on the inside that "runs" the show (what makes it an external) so I'll bust it open this evening and make it an internal by hooking it up directly. Could possibly work (the Western Digital worked that way until it finally died before Christmas which prompted me to get these two).

Oh well.....such is life....oh yeah, I forgot....anyone else have one of these?

[coop41]

I do and I have lost HD's of various make over the years, never fun. Have you tried rescuing it by putting it in the freezer? If not, google it.

[Frau_Blucher]

I've written here before about how I'm a little nutty about my drives. I've used LaCie brand ones since the very early 90s. They come at a small premium. No LaCie drive has ever failed on me (though I'm sure at some point one will). I've bought other drives intermittently because there's been deals that are too good. I've had those drives fail on me on a number of occasions and don't touch them anymore no matter how good the deal. An example isn't proof, but it's proof enough for me.

I have a ridiculous amount of physical storage on my computer compared to how much actual data I have. My primary disc is a 1TB internal. My primary media disc is a RAID-0 2TB Lacie giving me 1TB of always-mirrored data. Both of these are backed up every hour automatically to another 2TB LaCie set up as an Apple Time Machine disc. All of the content on these drives are periodically backed up a third time to various 500 and 250GB LaCies I used to use as primary disks. I also always carry a 1TB pocket drive that has most of my important music, photos and videos on it, so some of that data is backed up a fourth time - this goes offsite to a neighbor's house when we travel. The rest of the family is networked to a 2TB Time Capsule router/hard disc that automatically backs up their four computers without any interaction from them.

I know it's borderline obsessive compulsive behavior, but years of music and photos can so easily go PFFFT, it's absolutely insane not to have a constant incremental backups on drives you can trust. I haven't been able to trust Western Digitals. Seagates are reputed to be more robust, but again, any drive can fail.

[Max Murdoc]

[quote][i]Originally posted by coop41[/i]
<br>I do and I have lost HD's of various make over the years, never fun. Have you tried rescuing it by putting it in the freezer? If not, google it.
[/quote]

Hopefully by passing the internal "chip" will fix the problem. I used the old freezer trick on the Western Digital and recovered quite a bit, not all but probably 90%.

Wish me luck. This is my backup so I'm not losing anything...and if it works without the external box then I'm ok. I'm just concerned that if this one went, the odds are that the other might fail too.

[coop41]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>
- this goes offsite to a neighbor's house when we travel. [/quote]

I'm assuming this is locked in a fire-proof vault and the code, which several people only have a portion of, can only be accessed in the case of your untimely death, when these individuals meet at your funeral....

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by coop41[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>
- this goes offsite to a neighbor's house when we travel. [/quote]

I'm assuming this is locked in a fire-proof vault and the code, which several people only have a portion of, can only be accessed in the case of your untimely death, when these individuals meet at your funeral....
[/quote]
I keep the NOC-list of said people in a capsule up my rectum.

[Max Murdoc]

Well, I took the unit apart and hooked it up directly and still no go. Does the same thing....buzz.....buzz...buzz. Will not turn on.

Off to find a new hard drive (but no Western Digital or Seagate).

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Max Murdoc[/i]
<br>Off to find a new hard drive (but no Western Digital or Seagate).
[/quote]
Fair warning that this could be hard to do. Seagate is the largest manufacturer in the world, and you're likely to be buying them or WD whether or not you get their branded drive.

[Max Murdoc]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by Max Murdoc[/i]
<br>Off to find a new hard drive (but no Western Digital or Seagate).
[/quote]
Fair warning that this could be hard to do. Seagate is the largest manufacturer in the world, and you're likely to be buying them or WD whether or not you get their branded drive.
[/quote]

Funny you should say that because almost everything I looked at was one or the other. I think I'll try internal ones because the 2 that failed me were external...I've had 1 internal fail on me years ago and that was it.

[Bitter Almonds]

<p align="justify">I have 6 500GB Seagate Go external hard-drives and nuttin'... never had a real issue with them. I did have one problem when I could not access one of them (the second one of the six). So I defragmented it and I restarted the thing. Worked like a charm. If one of 'em craps out, then it's no prob. I just return it for a refund if it's still under warranty. I mean, all I do is store music, video, and picture files that I already have in hard copy. It would be a real pain having to upload all this shit again since it took me hours upon hours to just get 150GB of music into one of these, not to mention the pr0n I'd have to track down again[}:)]


________________________
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/Nuwavghost/dij.gif">

[obs]

Weird. I've only had one drive that was unrecoverable, and that's an IBM Travelstar. I've had a desktop Maxtor develop damaged sectors, but HDD Regenerator fixed that it.

Otherwise, I've mostly used WDC drives, and no issues. Maybe it's time for you to buy a regular internal drive and external enclosure. Perhaps try an enclosure that has a fan.

[Max Murdoc]

Looking at 2 WD Caviar Black 1 tera internals (price is pretty decent right now). The other Seagate I have that didn't fail will be replaced by one of these WD's. I'll just archive it. That will give me plenty of room for a while.

I figured that while I'm at it I'm going to replace my processor and motherboard and start fresh. Max Jr. (computer geek), is on a mission to upgrade my stuff.

[CounterCircular]

has anyone had any experience with mozy.com?? Their advertising how you can back up all your files with them, 5 gigs free, $4.95/month for unlimited. The idea sounds good but I'd want to determine what gets backed up, versus their system querying my computer for new things needing backup. Says it's run by the world's top something or other company, but I am leary until I know more. I have an external 1 TB drive but still worry about a crash. Mozy sounds like a good thing, if it really works and your files are protected. If you've not heard of this, go to mozy.com and check it out, I am curious what computer experts think about this thing??

[coop41]

[quote][i]Originally posted by CounterCircular[/i]
<br>has anyone had any experience with mozy.com?? Their advertising how you can back up all your files with them, 5 gigs free, $4.95/month for unlimited. The idea sounds good but I'd want to determine what gets backed up, versus their system querying my computer for new things needing backup. Says it's run by the world's top something or other company, but I am leary until I know more. I have an external 1 TB drive but still worry about a crash. Mozy sounds like a good thing, if it really works and your files are protected. If you've not heard of this, go to mozy.com and check it out, I am curious what computer experts think about this thing??
[/quote]


lifehacker.com has had a few articles and user comments on this youmight want to check out. Paying for storage online just seems silly to me but I'm sure I am being ridiculous about it.

[CounterCircular]

If I knew it was safe and secure, and guaranteed to not lose my files, $5 per month for me would be worth it. I am just afraid of crashes and losing things, but also don't want mozy to be able to go into my files. Me send to them, and get from them if needed, but them not able to get to my files, that is my concern. I'm pretty computer ignorant, and hear about these crashes, but just don't know what's really safe/secure.