I bought an external 1TB drive to back up videos. I chose seagate cause you think they are the best, however... I left it on overnight backing up stuff, so it had been on for about 15hrs straight, and then there was a loud bang, scorch marks on the Power supply near the input pins plus it took out a 13A fuse. And the hard drive case is swollen up in the middle. I can still access the drive, so its not dead , but you wonder about reliability. So I went to the seagate website, and there was a support facility to have live chat. I duly filled in the form only to be told it would cost me £28 for support. They are having a laugh, this is crap, the once great seagate reduced to selling unreliable rubbish. I also heard that there are a fair number of power supplies failing on these seagate drives, so its a known problem. 

Yet another well known brand reduced to selling c**p.

Ken

is it the one with the cooling fan ??

No, just a drive and interface in the case. The PSU that blew is a typical chiwanese product with all the safety labels on it, you know, TUV, UL, CE, PSE, NOM, CCC, PCT, GS etc.

Ken

my one and only Seagate was a 40 MEG drive...

had that much grief, Ive never bought another....
grudge holder  :-/  ;D ;D ;D

I won't touch Maxtor

As a drive, they are all much of a muchness now for reliability. Seagate aren't, and never were, more reliable than the other large disk manufacturers to be honest.

The problem they (and every other disk manufacturer) have is that clueless consumers want external drives with big numbers at low prices, and this means putting their decent-ish disks in poorly ventilated cases with cheap, nasty PSUs that are only up to occasional use.  Again, Seagate are no better and no worse than others in this respect.


I tend to use the USB powered 2.5" external drives, as it overcomes this issue, and they are lower power. But they do cost about 30% more for the same capacity...  ...but they I think single, external HDDs are a bloody poor backup system  :-X

TheBoy wrote on 31. Mar 2011 at 09:10:

As a drive, they are all much of a muchness now for reliability. Seagate aren't, and never were, more reliable than the other large disk manufacturers to be honest. The problem they (and every other disk manufacturer) have is that clueless consumers want external drives with big numbers at low prices, and this means putting their decent-ish disks in poorly ventilated cases with cheap, nasty PSUs that are only up to occasional use.  Again, Seagate are no better and no worse than others in this respect. I tend to use the USB powered 2.5" external drives, as it overcomes this issue, and they are lower power. But they do cost about 30% more for the same capacity...  ...but they I think single, external HDDs are a bloody poor backup system  :-X

which reminds me, I STILL need to pick one up  :-[

Jimbob wrote on 31. Mar 2011 at 09:12:

[quote author=4D717C5B7660190 link=1301525544/5#5 date=1301559047]As a drive, they are all much of a muchness now for reliability. Seagate aren't, and never were, more reliable than the other large disk manufacturers to be honest. The problem they (and every other disk manufacturer) have is that clueless consumers want external drives with big numbers at low prices, and this means putting their decent-ish disks in poorly ventilated cases with cheap, nasty PSUs that are only up to occasional use.  Again, Seagate are no better and no worse than others in this respect. I tend to use the USB powered 2.5" external drives, as it overcomes this issue, and they are lower power. But they do cost about 30% more for the same capacity...  ...but they I think single, external HDDs are a bloody poor backup system  :-X

which reminds me, I STILL need to pick one up  :-[/quote]
Keep an eye on Tesco, they occasionally have stunning offers on the sort of size you are looking for (if we are talking about what I think you are talking about).

I'm sure other places do as well, but I tend to frequent Tescos at least once a week for 'something to do at lunchtime', as Bletchley is a hole in the back end of nowhere.

Yes, deffo ;)

Keep forgetting to look  :-[

Really must get it sorted  :D

I've had the Seagate product, below, for around 6 months now, I'm sure I paid around forty squids for it.
It's been left plugged in to the mains and connected to the computer ever since I've had it. It seems to be performing well, perhaps you were just unlucky?
http://www.maplin.co.uk/1tb-seagate-external-hard-drive-257315

Brikhead wrote on 31. Mar 2011 at 09:42:

I've had the Seagate product, below, for around 6 months now, I'm sure I paid around forty squids for it. It's been left plugged in to the mains and connected to the computer ever since I've had it. It seems to be performing well, perhaps you were just unlucky? http://www.maplin.co.uk/1tb-seagate-external-hard-drive-257315

The majority will outlive their warranty period (I assume OP's has, as they want to charge him for repair ;)). But the cheap chinese PSUs and casings will lower reliability, and all makes suffer (in order to drive down cost to be competiitve)

from my experience maxtor was the worst of all.. :(

seagates not that bad.. last week I loose one scsi which worked for 7 years 7*24.. the other 3 on the raid still working though..

for mechanic drives I prefer samsung and for ssd either kingston or intel..

cem wrote on 31. Mar 2011 at 09:57:

from my experience maxtor was the worst of all.. :( seagates not that bad.. last week I loose one scsi which worked for 7 years 7*24.. the other 3 on the raid still working though.. for mechanic drives I prefer samsung and for ssd either kingston or intel..

If SCSI, its likely to be an Enterprise class drive. These do tend to be a lot more reliable than consumer/desktop drives, partly at the expense of not being cutting edge, and partly they tend to sit in proper, cooled enclosures.

TheBoy wrote on 31. Mar 2011 at 10:28:

cem wrote on 31. Mar 2011 at 09:57: from my experience maxtor was the worst of all.. :( seagates not that bad.. last week I loose one scsi which worked for 7 years 7*24.. the other 3 on the raid still working though.. for mechanic drives I prefer samsung and for ssd either kingston or intel.. If SCSI, its likely to be an Enterprise class drive. These do tend to be a lot more reliable than consumer/desktop drives, partly at the expense of not being cutting edge, and partly they tend to sit in proper, cooled enclosures.

yep..

And here's the PSU :
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t155/lapbits/PICT0446.jpg

Yes Brikhead, it was a maplins 1TB.

TB, maybe I didn't explain it properly, the unit is only 3 months old, so is covered by sale of goods etc, it was just that the case now has a 3mm high dome in it, I wasn't sure if this meant it was overheating, so I emailed seagate to ask if it should also be returned. They wanted £28 to answer that question. :'(

Ken

Ken T wrote on 31. Mar 2011 at 12:43:

And here's the PSU : http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t155/lapbits/PICT0446.jpg Yes Brikhead, it was a maplins 1TB. TB, maybe I didn't explain it properly, the unit is only 3 months old, so is covered by sale of goods etc, it was just that the case now has a 3mm high dome in it, I wasn't sure if this meant it was overheating, so I emailed seagate to ask if it should also be returned. They wanted £28 to answer that question. :'( Ken

Ah, OK. Your warranty is with Maplins unless they subcontract that back to manufacturer, which it sounds like they haven't.

Timne to go shouting at some spotty youth....