KVR :: Computer Setup and System Configuration » Don't ever buy a Seagate GoFlex backup drive [View Original Topic]
There are 20 posts in this topic.
osiris - Fri Apr 06, 2012 3:39 am
Bought one a week ago to backup PC and store extra files. Woke up a day ago to the 'click of death'. Drive not recognized. Tried everything suggested to no avail. Took it back and the wonderful guy at Office Depot managed to retrieve my files, and confirm the drive was bad.
I got to looking at it and realized it was just like the one I'd bought about a year ago to hook up to the Tivo. It to lasted about a month, then died with every freakinh' season finale on it, including the final episode of Lost
Anyway, what I find out from all these forums is this is a regular occurrence and sometimes it can be resolved, but I don't know why such a reputable company as Seagate would put out something they know is faulty. (There is problem with the power connection in the base was what we finally decided was happening)
I ended up with a Western Digital. I told the guy, I have this other portable drive I've had for years. It's been banged around, it's set for hours in a car in 100 degree weather, and it's never had a blip.
Just my opinion, but if you value your data, it's best to research this before buying.
jcschild - Fri Apr 06, 2012 5:23 am
:::SIGH::::
i understand your frustration but your experiance is too limited to make a statement like that.
the truth is both seagate and WD fail exactly the same amount. and the last 18 months both fail rates have decreased a good amount.
my experiance: 400 drives a month WD (video) and Seagate (audio)
personally i would never buy a "Brand" name external like that.
a Siig External Bay with a drive of your choice is a better option.
Scott
ADK
D.Josef - Fri Apr 06, 2012 6:05 am
Well for mission-critical storage (and I wouldn't consider the final episode of Lost that - esp. I beleive in the US you can re-download purchased vids from iTunes), I'd never have anything less than a mirror cluster of two drives.
There are some factory-made, USB-connectable RAID boxes around that you can "fill up" with standard SATA drives, or if price and functionality overrules looks and noise level, you can build a small PC, stuff it chock full of storage, and install a Linux storage server.
highkoo - Fri Apr 06, 2012 10:47 am
I have a few WDs that seem to be just fine, but I have never been able to fully trust any external. It just makes sense to me that they will eventually fukk up.
jcschild wrote:
400 drives a month
Wooooah.
That would give you a pretty unique perspective on very current fail rates.
Cool.
RunBeerRun - Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:05 am
I had a Western Digital, lasted 13 months, just beyond the warranty.
Now I use USB Flashdrives, storage purpose only.
hebb - Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:22 am
Was it a portable GoFlex?
paradiddle - Fri Apr 06, 2012 12:40 pm
I bought one a while back. (3 tera) Maybe I should look for other means of backup.
kpsychedelic - Fri Apr 06, 2012 7:07 pm
Yeah experience varies.
I had a WD external (the clunky messy one),2 TB and it failed on me 4-5 months after buying it (no refund since I order from the US so I ain't shipping anything back for guarantee obviously).
So I'd say I trust WD no more.
Then I had an internal Seagate Barracuda for years and never failed (1 TB and 500 GB).
But in any case any drive can fail so perhaps and if cheaper, an "internal" HD with a cheap external enclosure would be better.
BUT I have the feeling internal drives would tend to fail less because they get their power from the PSU, instead of the untrustful USB power ports that tend to fail (unless it's AC-powered like my diseased WD external, but then it failed...).
So all and all, just make sure to always carry a 1-1 copy of whatever info you have, and chances for BOTH drives failing is certainly low (YES, there are earthquakes and all bla bla bla take it with a grain of salt).
The best choice is always an offsite backup solution, but it's expensive for us home users.
koolkeys - Fri Apr 06, 2012 7:22 pm
I have the 2TB Seagate GoFlex(Desktop version) for work, and have had no issues with it. It's actually been a very good drive.
Of course, I've had a lot of success with Seagate and generally go with them for everything for consistency(it makes sense, since I've had good luck with them). I currently have the work drive, plus two external Seagate drives that I've had for at least 2 years each(one of them for around 4-5), plus both my system and samples internal drives on my desktop are Seagate Barracuda drives.
Outside of a bad sector on one that I quickly replaced through Tiger Direct, they have been flawless. Not a single bad sector on ANY of my drives, and no sign of failure any time soon using SMART analysis and other HD benchmarks.
So basically I say all this to mean that while all drives to have problems, I doubt this is a Seagate-only thing. Just the way it goes. I do worry at times about the various connectors involved with the GoFlex bases, so maybe that is a bigger problem. But I haven't seen it yet.
Brent
Ja.x - Fri Apr 06, 2012 7:38 pm
Talking about external drives, about 3 years ago I bought a 250Gb portable Iomega, that worked flawlessly, with just one usb plug conected, for one year and a half or something. Then it stopped working. Later I found out that if the damn thing is in a good mood and the two usb plugs conected, maybe it would start working after a while. More recently (7-8 months ago?) I bought a 500Gb Memup (also portable) that has been working fine so far (just 1 usb plug). Now I'm considering to buy a 2 gb external desktop drive to backup my hard drive and the portable usb thing. Do you have any sugestion?
jcschild - Sat Apr 07, 2012 8:17 am
D.Josef wrote:
Well for mission-critical storage (and I wouldn't consider the final episode of Lost that - esp. I beleive in the US you can re-download purchased vids from iTunes), I'd never have anything less than a mirror cluster of two drives.
There are some factory-made, USB-connectable RAID boxes around that you can "fill up" with standard SATA drives, or if price and functionality overrules looks and noise level, you can build a small PC, stuff it chock full of storage, and install a Linux storage server.
There are some factory-made, USB-connectable RAID boxes around that you can "fill up" with standard SATA drives, or if price and functionality overrules looks and noise level, you can build a small PC, stuff it chock full of storage, and install a Linux storage server.
ideally yes a raid 5 or even raid 6 NAS/ or ext storage
this is beyond what most will spend (well at least until they lose their data one time)
a Stardom SOHORAID SR4 is very affordable and fill it with your own 4 drives. i would do WD simply due to 5yr warranty vs seagates 1yr..
but alas most people wont do this but will have no issue buying more gear..
Scott
ADK
mkastrup - Sat Apr 07, 2012 8:38 am
I have stopped completely using Internal HD's except for the System disk.
My comp is on almost all the time and heat would kill the harddrives faster than i could buy them.
After i started using external USB harddrives my HD failure ratio went down about 50% - 75%.
On the other hand i still buy at least 2 harddrives a year due to the size of files filling up. Too lazy to actually sort the damn mess on the hard drives
osiris - Sun Apr 08, 2012 3:23 am
No, I don't think portable, as it had it's own power supply. Well, I'm disappointed to know this about failure rates, but I'm running out of room - I say I am, I have 30GB left,on the main drive. The wave files eat it up like nobody's business. I guess the only super safe thing to do is backup on DVD/CD because I have those and the one's I made 10 years ago still work.
standalone - Sun Apr 08, 2012 4:52 am
osiris wrote:
The wave files eat it up like nobody's business.
Can't you convert them into flac?. Hosts are begining to support this too.
The_Cresta - Sun Apr 08, 2012 5:06 am
2TB Goflex here, 24/24 7/7 on for nearly two years, no issues so far.
risome - Sun Apr 08, 2012 5:14 am
osiris wrote:
No, I don't think portable, as it had it's own power supply. Well, I'm disappointed to know this about failure rates, but I'm running out of room - I say I am, I have 30GB left,on the main drive. The wave files eat it up like nobody's business. I guess the only super safe thing to do is backup on DVD/CD because I have those and the one's I made 10 years ago still work.
My mate Pinky says back up to Cds and DVD and keep then in a portable plastic tub cause if disaster strikes ie a fire flood(heaven forbid)(f@#k i got all religious and i am an atheist)
you can grab you cd/dvd tub and chuck it out the window closely followed by yourself, would not want to try that with any hard drive 
osiris - Sun Apr 08, 2012 6:52 am
LOL- I have all mine in this big flexi/rolly suitcase backpack thing and that's exactly what I plan to do first.
highkoo - Sun Apr 08, 2012 8:12 am
Slappa cases FTW.
http://www.slappa.com/
rifftrax - Sun Apr 08, 2012 11:46 am
Maybe I'm just incredibly lucky but I've never ever had a hard-drive die on me lol.
Jace-BeOS - Sun Apr 08, 2012 12:03 pm
I've had lots of drives. I tend to buy Seagate only, out of old habit from SCSI days. Doesn't Seagate own Western Digital and Maxtor? Aren't they just the same now?
I've had all brands fail though I'm particularly irritated that they fail more from storage and disuse than from constant use. Two WD 500 Gig drives came out of storage louder and one was failing. I've not found bad sectors on the other yet but it's much louder. A Seagate in an older G4 Mac was click of death dead recently, too, yet I've drives much older that are still fine.. I've old Seagate SCSI drives from the real old days that sound horrific but work. The most failures I saw in the old days were Maxtors and IBMs (in fact, a few older Macs with IBMs were prett consistently noisy and failure prone). Though I have warranty replaced two SCSI Seagates back in the day. It's all pretty random.
There are 20 posts in this topic.