Previously DevilsPGD wrote:
In message Grant
was claimed to have wrote:

On Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:17:13 -0800, DevilsPGD wrote:

In message Grant
was claimed to have wrote:

Interesting thread, I've got a 'bad' 250GB drive that has a huge seek
error rate, right from day one, yet it passes the Seagate warranty
return test. Had it for a few years now, never lost data, though it
is slower on test than a similar 250GB drive.

Why didn't you / don't you warranty it?

You cannot read? Drive passes the Seagate RMA warranty test.

Unimportant, if you're seeing huge seek error rates, or significantly
slower performance then matching (model+firmware) drives, Seagate
absolutely will accept the RMA request.

A failure in SeaTools is one reason to send in an RMA request, but it's
not the only reason that will be accepted.

Seagate sasys somnething different on their website, but it is
possible to trick them by claiming Seatools would not even run and get
an RMA number that way. As drives are very likely not tested when
they are received on an RMA, you will get a replacement anyways. I
have used this approach for Seagate and Maxtor sucessfully on
not-quite-deat-yet drives.

So, while a huge raw seek error rate may not mean anything, you
will very likely get a replacemen even for a drive that is
completely fine. Significantly slower performance, however,
is a clear warning sign. Of course you need to measure this
without filesystem, as the filesystem can also cause slowdowns
in disks that are fine.

Arnio