Bad 3TB Seagate Brand New?

Question

Level 1

90 points

Bad 3TB Seagate Brand New?

Hi Gang

Happy Memorial Day!

I recently picked up #2 Seagate 3TB drives from B&H: SEST3000DM00, (Good Ratings). One drive was erased and formatted 'ok' using an external OWC enclosure, 'Mac OSX Journaled' and I successfully transferred almost 2 TB's of data using 'Super Duper'. I then opened and ran Disc Utility and the drive checked out 'ok'. The other Brand New 3TB drive was erased and formatted 'ok'. However upon #2 attempts, (using #2 different OWC enclosures), after I transferred almost 2 TB's of data it failed Disc Utility; Verify or Repair on 2 separate tries. I also used 'Disk Warrior' and it displayed errors suggesting mechanical sectors could be bad.

Although its never happened to me before, I'm assuming I just got a bad drive - a drive that somehow won't pass Disc Utility or Disk Warrior.

I'm asking B&H for an exchange.

Thanx

Mike

G5 Dual Core-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.4.11), G5 Dual Core

Posted on May 24, 2015 8:33 PM

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Answer 1

Jeff

Level 6

12,058 points

May 25, 2015 7:35 AM in response to ENIGMACODE

Although I've never had a hard drive fail under warranty, much less out-of-the-box, I've often wondered if I'd want to return it after having transferred my files to it. If you transferred data of a sensitive nature, for example - your income tax returns for the past 15 years, I'd be concerned as to its fate after returning it to the retailer. Would the vendor just trash it or would the manufacturer want it returned, in an attempt to identify a possible production flaw that needs addressing? The latter might only happen, if a large number of failed drives came from the same shipment. There are third-party companies that buy, refurbish, and sell name-brand electronic devices that failed under warranty. The manufacturer and/or its vendors have arrangements in place, to deal with returned electronics. A bare hard drive is too negligible to sell off individually, but may get tossed into a larger box of miscellaneous devices that could get sold off at auction. For these reasons, I'd always wonder if somebody might find a way to access my files on a returned, "defective" hard drive. Unfortunately, you've just bought a new 3 TB drive that's bad, so you've got to return it.

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Answer 2

ENIGMACODE Author

Level 1

90 points

May 25, 2015 8:01 AM in response to Jeff

Hi Jeff

Thanks for the obvious warnings. In answer to your questions, no I'm not too concerned because there is no sensitive data on that drive. Only Video files. And although its 'finicky', I can still use Disc Utility to erase it. And yes I already know that files can still be recovered, but again, its not a concern.

From everything I've read about 3TB drives, they should be 'Readable', and 'Writable', within 10.4, but they can't be 'Bootable'. I'm not concerned with the drive being 'Bootable'. Its Video storage Only. And as I mentioned, I've already formatted one 3TB drive and transferred data to it.

Yes, its unlikely a drive would be bad 'out of the box', but it does happen.

Thanx

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Answer 3

ENIGMACODE Author

Level 1

90 points

May 25, 2015 9:13 AM in response to ENIGMACODE

I believe I may have found an answer to the Seagate 3TB being problematic within 10.4.11. Although OWC does NOT explain the procedure clearly regarding a Seagate 3TB drive that they sell, I found a reply provided by my ole' friend Chris, 'japamac' a few years back. OWC should have gone beyond their compatibility chart but they did not.

Chris points out that you must first use the GUID Partition Table and not the 'Apple Partition Map'

I thought this only applied to a drive that you wanted to use as a 'Bootable' drive and not only for storage. Perhaps you must use the GUID Partition Table regardless of whether the drive is to be used for 'Storage' or 'Start Up'.

Here's OWC's description and compatibility chart:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST3000DM001/

Here's Chris' reply:

Is there a max SATA disk size in OSX 10.4.11 and G4/1.25?

Here's additional information:

http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourmac/qt/partition-types.htm

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