Had my back-up external drive fail on me Friday night and have spent the last couple of days trying to recover as much as possible off it. I was in the middle of transferring files onto my TomTom GO520 when it failed so not only did the drive go but it took my TomTom with it!!!! :eek:

After recovery i managed to get all my TomTom back-ups and various maps etc... back so the TomTom is now back up and running thank god!!! I also managed to get my NDS roms back.... Or most of them. My music, movie and digital photos were all just back-ups so i wasn't bothered about them.... Although all were recoverable. I have lost a good 10-15gigs worth of various bits of software though.

The drive was a Seagate FreeAgent 300gb external drive and was about 18 months old so still within warranty. It looks to be an issue not with the HD itself but with the interface as it works for 10-15mins before then losing comms with whatever computer it's connected to.... Looked into getting it repaired / replaced and found that Seagate have the stance of you having to pay to have the thing sent to them at your own cost even if it is found to indeed be faulty!!! The rough cost would actually only work out about £10 less than just buying the drive new!!! After doing some more digging on the net it appears as if this fault is actually very common and it does make you wonder if Seagate came up with this returns method after finding out how many of the bloody things were going faulty!!!! There were lots of people who refused to pay and just bought new drives rather than getting a reconditioned unit back from Seagate.

Anyhow i know it's putting myself out but i've decided to make a stand and just purchase a different drive and have gone for one of these.....

Western Digital 500GB USB2.0 External Hard Drive 16MB Cache - Retail Mybook II - Ebuyer

***EDIT*** Just realised i got the drive yesterday when it was up for £54... it's now £69!!!!!

I ordered it yesterday and got free 5 working day delivery but looking at the tracking facility it should arrive tomorrow!!!!! Which if i'd asked for that delivery option would have cost me £10!!!!

Anyhow rant over and i'll hopefully be playing with my new, better looking, drive tomorrow.

Cheers

Dave.

Edited 15 September, 200817 yr by WaveyDavey

Another one........ several people I know have had this model die.

I have one and Driver Sitter Pro insists it is about to go to the HD graveyard.

The temperatures in the unvented case are way too high when the disc is powered up for any length of time.

I have my brothers one sitting here in bits also. Cant get a sausage off it though.

The other problem i had in recovering data was obviously due to the nature of the fault it would lose comms after about 15mins so i could only recover anything that GetDataBack got to within that time..... I reckon the rest of the stuff on there was recoverable but the unit would drop out before the software had time to scan for it!!!!

Unfortunatle yi bought my folks the same drive last month so will warn them aboiut this problem..... I might suggest they keep the drive switched off until they need it as they won't be using it very often so it should then last a little longer.

I've seen glowing reviews for the Western Digital drive i've now gone for so touch wood it'll be ok.

Cheers

Dave.

If you don't care for the warranty and have a spare case from your old one, then why not put a slim quiet fan somewhere in it?

I am toying with something like that to be honest.... It depends whether the issue is something that will happen for ever more now that the initial fault has occurred or whether it will clear up once the overheating issue is dealt with. If it did work then i'd just use it for non critical files and little odd jobs etc.....

Warranty isn't an issue what with their policy on not paying all postage costs.

Cheers

Dave.

I am toying with something like that to be honest.... It depends whether the issue is something that will happen for ever more now that the initial fault has occurred or whether it will clear up once the overheating issue is dealt with. If it did work then i'd just use it for non critical files and little odd jobs etc.....

Warranty isn't an issue what with their policy on not paying all postage costs.

Cheers

Dave.

Out of interest who told you that is Seagates policy as that's news to me.

Certainly I'd be contacting your supplier as they have a legal requirement to replace faulty goods at their own cost. If your supplier points you at Seagate I would point them at the laws that state your contract is with them (the retailer) and it is up to them to deal with warranty claims with the supplier on your behalf.

Check with trading standards regarding the supplier if you have problems.

I take it you've been to this page:

Seagate Technology - Warranty and Returns Assistance

I have my brothers one sitting here in bits also. Cant get a sausage off it though.

There's your problem .......You can't store sausages in hard drives:P

There's your problem .......You can't store sausages in hard drives:P

That’s probably because he should adjust his Antipieware to allow them:thumbup:

Out of interest who told you that is Seagates policy as that's news to me.

Certainly I'd be contacting your supplier as they have a legal requirement to replace faulty goods at their own cost. If your supplier points you at Seagate I would point them at the laws that state your contract is with them (the retailer) and it is up to them to deal with warranty claims with the supplier on your behalf.

Check with trading standards regarding the supplier if you have problems.

I take it you've been to this page:

Seagate Technology - Warranty and Returns Assistance

It was the Seagate website itself...... Somewhere after the page you linked to that states that you have to pay for postage of any warranty claims to them.... Seagate then pay for any postage back out to you.

Thing is the price of sending an item of that size and weight via recorded delivery (wouldn't risk sending it without) comes to the £15-£20 mark.

Seagate also say if the item is found not to be faulty they will also sting you for the return costs.... which is acceptable.

I thought i'd mis-read to be honest untill i found numerous accounts on the web of others complaining about having to pay to return items under warranty...... God knows how they are getting away with it.

In the end i've gone for the WD mybookII now so will just boycott Seagate in future.

Cheers

Dave.

Found the statement on the Seagate website in the support section...............

Q. Who pays for shipping returns?

A. You must pay shipping charges for all shipments from you to Seagate. If your product is under warranty, Seagate will pay for shipment of the replacement product to you. Other charges, duties, and customs are the responsibility of the customer.

Answer

Cheers

Dave.

Have you tried taking it to bits? if the problem is with the interface overheating you will more than likely find there is a standard sata or ide hard drive inside... then its just a case of plugging it into one of your internal IDE/Sata connectors.

worth a try. it worked on my 500gb packard bell external drive...

Have you tried taking it to bits? if the problem is with the interface overheating you will more than likely find there is a standard sata or ide hard drive inside... then its just a case of plugging it into one of your internal IDE/Sata connectors.

worth a try. it worked on my 500gb packard bell external drive...

It's a sata drive inside i believe..... Thing is i bought an external drive for the specific reason of it being portable.

It may well get used as an internal drive etc... in the future though rather than just chucking it.

Cheers

Dave.

I'd still suggest speaking to your retailer about the drive.

Also Special delivery would cover sending the drive wrapped in bubble wrap for about £10.

I may do but as i say i've got the replacement arriving now..... And knowing what i now know about it being a common problem i can't say i'm all that fussed about getting another one.

Think i got it from Maplin so might mention it next time i'm in the local branch though and see what they say.

It's just me being in a more than normal militant not budging kind of mood too.

My main point in this thread was just to get it off my chest.

Cheers

Dave.