I just got an extra hard drive for VM installs, a Seagate 120GB ST3120811AS, SATA 3Gb/sec. Here's the problem:

The other day, while playing UT2004, my computer froze. I was about to reach over and hit reboot when it came back, no crashes. The game kept running fine. Odd, I thought. It happened a few more times over the next couple of days, so I began to wonder wtf was going on.

I also noticed the Seagate drive had disappeared from Explorer and the Device Manager. I noticed today that the drive disappeared right after these freezes. The only way to get the drive to come back is by rebooting, but even then sometimes, the BIOS won't detect it without a complete power down. I've replaced the SATA cable and changed the drive to a different SATA connector on the motherboard, neither helped.

Right now I put the Seagate drive on a different SATA power cable, hoping that helps. If not, any other tips on things to try before I RMA it?

I experienced somin similar before McFly, but I can't recall what I done about it. But I
did sort out it. As soon as it comes back to me, I will let you know.

Well changing the power cable didn't help. It just froze for a few seconds, and when it came back I fired up the Device Manager in time to see the drive vanish. :-\

Sh**, just checked the Event log and found:



:-X

I really like that response. Interpreting what the computer is really telling you...

"Your disk drive is about to fail so you need to backup your data, however, just to make it fun I'm going to make the drive disappear so it will be impossible for you to backup your data.

Nyahh, nyahh, nyahh."

Well, luckily I was able to backup all my data to another drive, so if it does take a turn for the worst I won't lose any data.

I just got done running the "long test" in Seagate's SeaTools, ended with 70-some errors. All were "fixed," according to SeaTools, and the test ended with the result "PASSED after repairs."

So we will see. Normally it bugged out after between 10 minutes and maybe an hour or so of uptime, so if it stands for a few days or so I'll be happy.

Nope, didn't help. I did another long format and it reports "This unit has severe physical defects."

Enough said. RMA time.

Got the Seagate replacement process going, hopefully it's a smooth process.

Well crikes, my drive is set to arrive at Seagate today ... and I just realized I don't think the RMA number is on the label. It's on the side of the box, but Seagate was pretty adamant that it be listed on the label. Their packing instructions are pretty nuts. 2 inches of solid foam on all sides? Sheesh.

I hope I get a replacement and not a nasty email.

McFly said:
LOL at the warning message. "A failure may be imminent." I don't thnk WinXP has anything as descriptive as that, must be Vista.

Yessir, I'm a Vista-man ... I did notice the error was a little less "generic."

Well I noticed today the status on my RMA page went to Received by Seagate: yes, so that must be a good sign!

Hopefully they send me out a refurb soon.

Well well! I hope this isn't a mistake! They just got it yesterday, and already have shipped my replacement!

The best part ... according to the model number in the packing sheet they emailed me, they sent me a 250GB 7200.10 to replace my 120GB 7200.9! I hope that's not a mistake.

Woo, just got the drive today, they in fact did send me a refurb'd 250GB. Nice upgrade. I'm going to run the long SeaTools test on it and see how it does.

Refurbs often prove more reliable than new. Depending on what was changed-out, early-life failures can be substantially reduced.

Hope it works out great for ya.