Power cycles aren't the spin up/down cycles though.

smartctl shows a Start_Stop_Count of 7 which is identical to the Power_Cycle_Count.

Check the head load/unload counts in the output from smartctl -a

EDIT: mmm.. that's probably the same as the "Start_Stop_Count", which Andy has already checked. Dunno for sure, though, as I won't allow any of those drives into our gear here.

"Load_Cycle_Count" is the one to look at.

On my eight WD10EADS-00L5B1 drives, the Start_Stop_Count and Load_Cycle_Count (raw) values are the same on the same drive, either 58 or 59. And they've been up and running for a little over two months.

Srsly. Load_Cycle_Count and Start_Stop_Count are both about 270, much less than Power_On_Hours at about 2500, and much more than Power_Cycle_Count at 17.

Peter

Okay, so that's an indication that they may have fixed the issue with newer firmware, as you suggested.

Good!

Either that, or they're just not reporting it any more in the S.M.A.R.T. data.

I have a WD10EADS and it shows power on hours 1380, power cycle 172 and start/stop and load cycle are both 174.

Coworker just had an ST3750330NS go brick on him. Suddenly. Right after a reboot.

Anyone know if that drive is one of the affected ones?

Newegg reviews don't look so hot.

... And if his is one of the models with the firmware bug, is there a chance he can recover once it's bricked?

You have to send it to Seagate for them to do their magic on it but it should come back with full access to data. I assume they have some sort of secret manufacturer programming interface which allows them to reset the log.

Thanks.

Wow, Seagate have been the Sony of hard drives this past year. Damn. I pretty much exclusively buy Seagate, so I'm knocking some wood right now.

I applied updated firmware to my 1.5TB drives as soon as I got them, which was a little while after Seagate finally released their fix. At the time I had to live-chat to get the firmware files as they weren't available for free download.

The HD has buggy badly written spyware that doesn't even work properly which is installed without your approval and it leaves a backdoor open the size of an oil tanker when you try to uninstall it?

I was referring to the Sony battery fiasco which was a much bigger deal than their root kit issue. Week after week and month after month we kept hearing about a new batch of batteries. So too with Seagate's drives. FIrst 1.5TB, then 1TB, now ES models at 750GB.

Since the rootkit fiasco, Sony has not received a dime of my money, and it is unlikely that they ever will again.

tanstaafl.

I've crossed LG off the list.

BlueBirds

Reviews

Re: Sony (new today)... See what I mean?

Of course, bad power adaptors aren't just a Sony problem.

No. Not really. If it was only Sony that ever recalled a faulty part that was manufactured by somebody else then yes there would be a point to you mentioning that.

I've got a bunch of replacement Dell laptop PSUs because the originals had a similar problem to these VAIO ones. My original Xbox has a special replacement mains lead that has a RCD built into it because the socket is flakey. There are a multitude of recalls for car parts which are even more dangerous because there is a serious chance of injury or death.

Whilst it is bad that they sold these potentially dangerous PSUs, it isn't specific to Sony. They're not even made by Sony. They asked one of the big PSU manufacturers that they'd like a PSU that outputs this voltage at this current and they'd like their logo stamped on the outside. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple used the same manufacturers.

Which naturally leads to the next question -- what's a decent 1TB or larger drive that isn't going to go south mysteriously?

If you scroll backward in this very thread, you'll see Mark Lord advocating and me buying Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB hard drives. They were also standard equipment on my recent Mac Pro.

I also bought a pair of the WD Caviar Black drives and have been completely satisfied. Of course, they've only been on-line for a couple of months, and one of them is only powered up for a few hours every few days or so for backups.

BTW, be wary of buying this drive from Amazon. Many of the reviews state that the drive was extremely inadequately packaged, rattling around loose in an over-sized box and arriving DOA. By contrast, Newegg shipped my drives wrapped in bubble wrap in a properly sized box filled with styrofoam packing peanuts. You'll pay about $15 more at Newegg, but it is money well spent.

tanstaafl.

tanstaafl.

Hi,

I have used 8 of the WD 1TB drives (4 each for system storage, 4 for disk to disk back-ups every 2 weeks) in my i7 SPICE simulation system.

They seem to work fine for me.

Heeded Mark's warning NOT to buy Seagate drives.

Ross

Cool... wasn't sure if there was any more recent recommendations, or if the newer Seagates were okay.

They don't seem to be. Even Patrick is having issues with a Seagate drive here now, and their firmware-of-death saga is less than a year old yet. Avoid.