I always thought Seagate were the premier drives to buy also.........
Never, EVER, had this kind of trouble with them......

I am in the process of trying to bring the rig to life using the 3rd brick.

I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the ST-238R -- you can't take a decent 20 megabyte MFM drive and cram 30 megabytes onto it with an RLL controller, even a good one like the Western Digital WD1003S-RAH.

Oh just a measly 20GB drive? Try having to go through 10 Seagate ST-4096 MFM(5.25" FH Drives) hdds to get 1 that worked! And no I wasn't using an RLL controller. :D

Now those suckers were Real Bricks!

I think we're talking about a time long before drives were measured in Gigabytes, and 640k was a lot of RAM.

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What's with recent Seagate hard drives???? . . . <snip>

What model number(s) were these? I also have had good luck with Seagate in the past. And WD too for that matter. I may stick with Seagate in the future, but might want to avoid that specific model.

Barracuda 7200.11 500Gb ST3500320AS

Purchased as OEM bare drives from Tiger Direct a few months ago.....

The 3rd Brick has loaded the OS....here we go again....

Such a time consuming pain.....

Load the OS
Edit the registry to activate autologon
Load the video drivers
Load the mobo drivers
Load the network drivers
Load the audio drivers
Apply the service packs

Etc., etc., etc.........

I have SP3 saved as an .iso. Do you want me to burn a copy and bring it along tomorrow?

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Clk2HlpSetiCty:::PayIt4ward

Such a time consuming pain.....

Load the OS
Edit the registry to activate autologon
Load the video drivers
Load the mobo drivers
Load the network drivers
Load the audio drivers
Apply the service packs

Etc., etc., etc.........

You're still using XP, right? You could save a little time with TweakUI. It won't help with drivers, but it's easier than editing the registry...

-Dave

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As I recall it was Mark who suggested that I get a Seagate. ;)

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Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Albert Einstein

What's with recent Seagate hard drives???? . . . <snip>

What model number(s) were these? I also have had good luck with Seagate in the past. And WD too for that matter. I may stick with Seagate in the future, but might want to avoid that specific model.

Barracuda 7200.11 500Gb ST3500320AS
Purchased as OEM bare drives from Tiger Direct a few months ago.....

Thanks, that has been added to my list of must avoids. Best of luck with the third one !!

Thanks, that has been added to my list of must avoids. Best of luck with the third one !!

Do you want to share the rest of your list with us?

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"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

May I suggest you dig out those credit card statements. If Seagate gives you a hard time returning those bricks, you may have some recourse via your credit card company.

Guess buying that blue hicky doodah sitting on top of the box wasn't such a bad idea after all;)

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

I always thought Seagate were the premier drives to buy also.........
Never, EVER, had this kind of trouble with them......

I am in the process of trying to bring the rig to life using the 3rd brick.

I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the ST-238R -- you can't take a decent 20 megabyte MFM drive and cram 30 megabytes onto it with an RLL controller, even a good one like the Western Digital WD1003S-RAH.

Oh just a measly 20GB drive? Try having to go through 10 Seagate ST-4096 MFM(5.25" FH Drives) hdds to get 1 that worked! And no I wasn't using an RLL controller. :D

Now those suckers were Real Bricks!

I think we're talking about a time long before drives were measured in Gigabytes, and 640k was a lot of RAM.

Oopsey! My bad, Concentration slipped again. :o Should be 20MB and the ST-4096 was an 80MB hdd of course. :D

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

What's with recent Seagate hard drives???? . . . <snip>

What model number(s) were these? I also have had good luck with Seagate in the past. And WD too for that matter. I may stick with Seagate in the future, but might want to avoid that specific model.

Barracuda 7200.11 500Gb ST3500320AS

Purchased as OEM bare drives from Tiger Direct a few months ago.....

The 3rd Brick has loaded the OS....here we go again....

Such a time consuming pain.....

Load the OS
Edit the registry to activate autologon
Load the video drivers
Load the mobo drivers
Load the network drivers
Load the audio drivers
Apply the service packs

Etc., etc., etc.........

I have SP3 saved as an .iso. Do you want me to burn a copy and bring it along tomorrow?

Thanks John, but I have my install disk for Win2k advanced server already loaded.....the rig is running, now just gotta reload a bunch o' stuff......

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

As I recall it was Mark who suggested that I get a Seagate. ;)

Yes, I did, because up until just now, I swore by them rather than at them.....

And to tell ya true, unless the 3rd Brick lunches anytime in the near future, I am still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.......

But like I said, the next time I buy a HD......and it may well be a Seagate....I might see if I can find some MTBF numbers before I make a decision, and not just buy what looks to be the best bargain in the bin........

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

I guess this is just another reason to make sure you back up your HD every couple of weeks or so...

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Do you Good Search for Seti@Home? http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=888957
Or Good Shop? http://www.goodshop.com/?charityid=888957

I guess this is just another reason to make sure you back up your HD every couple of weeks or so...

Remind me of that in a couple of weeks, willya? LOL.

I am back on my daily driver now, running on the 3rd Brick....

Not crunching yet, but I am working on it. Got the basic infrastructure glued back together anyway.....

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Okee dokee..........the daily driver is crrrrrrrrrrrrunching once more!!!!

Next stop......set up email again.....crap.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Got the email back online...woo hoo!!!

Now to get that little clock thingy back that shows me UTC.....

OK....got that back.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

I guess this is just another reason to make sure you back up your HD every couple of weeks or so...

Remind me of that in a couple of weeks, willya? LOL.

I am back on my daily driver now, running on the 3rd Brick....

Not crunching yet, but I am working on it. Got the basic infrastructure glued back together anyway.....

Sure You don't want some Walthers Goo to hold that thing together with? ;)

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I guess this is just another reason to make sure you back up your HD every couple of weeks or so...

Remind me of that in a couple of weeks, willya? LOL.

I am back on my daily driver now, running on the 3rd Brick....

Not crunching yet, but I am working on it. Got the basic infrastructure glued back together anyway.....

Sure You don't want some Walthers Goo to hold that thing together with? ;)

Naw.....duct tape will hold anything together.....

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Thanks, that has been added to my list of must avoids. Best of luck with the third one !!

Do you want to share the rest of your list with us?

Hi Jason,

LOL. Can you hear the chorus of "I love that . . ." that would surely follow?

The PC avoid list is actually fairly short. I've had good luck with most hardware; Possibly because I'm conservative, don't buy bleeding edge state of the art stuff, and don't push my equipment too hard. Mostly the list consists of other types of products/services I will NOT buy because of their commercials.

I will offer one recent addition that might save someone a couple of bucks tho', avoid Memorex DVD+R DL (double layer) media. Memorex single layer works perfectly OK for me but their DL media is the pits. Verbatim +R DL's have worked 100% so I guess that's a recommendation. I also avoid anything from Gateway and Acer. (here come the posts) Also any Norton product from Symantec since Peter Norton sold his name to them. There are a few others . . .

[edit] Mark, sorry to hijack your thread a little [/edit]

Thanks, that has been added to my list of must avoids. Best of luck with the third one !!

Do you want to share the rest of your list with us?

Hi Jason,

LOL. Can you hear the chorus of "I love that . . ." that would surely follow?

The PC avoid list is actually fairly short. I've had good luck with most hardware; Possibly because I'm conservative, don't buy bleeding edge state of the art stuff, and don't push my equipment too hard. Mostly the list consists of other types of products/services I will NOT buy because of their commercials.

I will offer one recent addition that might save someone a couple of bucks tho', avoid Memorex DVD+R DL (double layer) media. Memorex single layer works perfectly OK for me but their DL media is the pits. Verbatim +R DL's have worked 100% so I guess that's a recommendation. I also avoid anything from Gateway and Acer. (here come the posts) Also any Norton product from Symantec since Peter Norton sold his name to them. There are a few others . . .

[edit] Mark, sorry to hijack your thread a little [/edit]

Hey, no problem.....any info that will save anybody some grief is fine by me.....
I've got the rig about 95% back now....
Didn't reload the photo software and redownload from the camera flash card yet, but I'll probably do that tomorrow after the kitty shelter supply mission...

Now I just gotta avoid being so lazy about backups......

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

In my many years building PC's, I have been through a lot of drives, and different manufacturers.

I'll see if I recall all of them correctly.

My first HD was a Seagate 100Mb drive which came with my 386DX40 computer. Lasted for many years, and never failed. I actually have in my closet somewhere, and wouldn't be surprised if it still worked.

The next one I got was a Western Digital 500Mb. Much faster than the Seagate, very reliable. Came to live in my brothers PC, where eventually it failed after many years of service.

Next was a Quantum Fireball EL 5,1GB. Very reliable, made it into my nephews computer, and I got it back when he asked me to disasemble it (he's handicaped so he couldn't do it himself). Still works, but is also laying around in the closet.

Next was the IBM DTTA-371010 10,1Gb. Produced december 99. Worked reliably for all the time that I used it, allthough it became noisy at the end, and did not allways spin the disk up at cold boot. Was replaced because of this.

Next was a Quantum Fireball Plus AS 40 Gb. Also very reliable, still works. But this disk was extremely noisy from day one. Very very noisy. So it was only used for a year or so, and since then has been sitting in the closet, only to come out for short time duty.

Next was a Maxtor 40Gb disc. Don't remember its name, crashed after 18 months of work as my primary drive taking all my precious files with it... Got a warranty replacement, a refurbished low profile drive, which lasted a year or so, before it died. I didn't try to replace this one, since it had a limited warranty, and the original drives warranty had run out.

Then my worst disc ever, an IBM 40Gb. This one died after a few months, and so did the replacement, and the replacement for that. 3 drives, then I gave up, even though it was still under warranty.....

Then a 80Gb Seagate ST38011A drive, which is at work today in my server computer, probably something like 4 years 24/7/365.

Another Seagate 80Gb ST38021A, 3½ years 24/7/365. Still works, also in my server.

Then a 200Gb Maxtor 6 B200M0. My first Sata drive. Still works after about 3 years, but sometimes doesn't spin up at boot-up, and even worse also won't spin-up after going to sleep. Still at work in my server, but about to be replaced, and I will try to get it replaced under warranty, which I think was 5 years for this model.

Then a 160Gb Seagate ST3160212A Pata. About 2½ years 24/7/365. Still works as a charm in my server.

Then a Hitachi HDS721616PLAT80 160Gb Pata. Less than two years old, but allready showing bad blocks, and I'm getting write errors writing to it. Still at work in my server but about to be replaced, and then sent in for replacement under warranty.

Last drive is a Seagate ST3320620AS 320Gb Sata. Sitting in my main computer, works flawlessly. Only about 1 year old.

I'll try to sum it up:

6 Seagate drives, none of them has failed. 5 of them still at work.

4 IBM drives, where one still works, but not reliably.

3 Maxtor drives, 2 have failed, 1 is failing, but still at work.

2 Quantum drives, both still work, but sitting in my closet.

1 Hitachi drive, which is failing, but is still at work.

1 WD, which ended up failing after many years of service.

My experiences with Seagate drives have been outstanding, they have never failed me.

All the rest of the manufacturers except Quantum (which is no more, was bought by Maxtor, who is now owned by Seagate), have failed miserably!

I'm about to replace two disks in my server, guess which manufacturer I'm going to choose....

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Buy one for me because I will not buy another Seagate lousy software.