SeaTools HD Check

I've been testing a few Seagate hard disks with their software SeaTools for Windows software. It seems to be ok, but I am concerned about something, and I wanted other people's experiences with this software.

The issue that concerns me is when I run the 'Long Generic/Repair All' test (you really need to be familiar with this software to understand what I'm getting at here) the program INVARIABLY finds a small number (between 2 and 6 on each pass with the drives I've tested - about half a dozen or so 500GB disks) of bad sectors (or blocks), and claims to have "repaired" them (I think this usually means reallocated them for "spare" sectors that disks have). I am not so concerned about this: what concerns me is that when I run the same test again, it finds more bad sectors, the same or a similar number. The software apparently identifies the bad sectors (there is a number by each that seems to represent a sector number), and bad sectors discovered on each pass have different numbers. This occurs even with a freshly manufacturer refurbished one; I got it from Seagate, straight out of the box and Seatools did its stuff.

Has anybody else experienced this ? Has anyone ever tested a Seagate disk and found zero bad sectors with this software ? Is (Could) the testing process, either in hardware or software, be creating bad sectors, and damaging the disk ? Are they showing as bad but are not actually because of a very occasional fault like a R/W error caused by my hardware ? I'm using a USB <-> internal HD adapter that works for both SATA and IDE drives depending on which socket is connect to the USB port, and testing internal drives through a USB port on my PC. This easier than setting up especially SATA drives in my PC which has no SATA controllers.

I have yet to try out other HD testing software.

Dumb_Question
23.January.2014

 

Hi.
Have you tried using Seatools for DOS, You could send the log report to Seagate and ask for their opinion on your questions.
Wal

 

Since you posted this I've been running the Long Generic test on a Seagate 320GB hard disk that has been in constant use for 8 years. It passed with zero bad sectors.

 

Thanks for your posts.

-> oxooxo
I have not tried the analogous scan using SeaTools for DOS, if it exists (I imagine it does), although I do have that program available. I might try your suggestion but I find it a bit of a palava using it, because it won't work with external drives, so I have to connect the SATA test drive up to an IDE system internally while balancing the disk on the corner of the case...(if I don't want to start taking things apart to put the drive into the spare slot - it's crowded in my case, a lot spaghetti. But it is possible to balance the disk on the corner of the open case). Good idea.

I have consulted Seagate on this, but I couldn't really understand their answer. Maybe I should try again.

-> Earthling
Thank you for news of your experience, I am somewhat reassured by it. I was also surprised that you could scan a whole 320GB in two hours, while I take 10-12 hours to do a 500GB disk (consistently). But maybe this is because you are scanning an internal disk while I am scanning through a USB 2.0 port about which I have a warning about 'device can operate more quickly if connected to a high speed USB 2.0 port' [NB all the USB ports on my PC are spec'd as USB 2.0]. This problem is the subject of another thread (which seems to have died.

Dumb_Question
23.January.2014

Compaq Presario S5160UK DT261A under XP/SP3
Processor - Celeron 2.7 GHz
Motherboard - MSI MS-6577 v2.1
RAM - 1GB + 512MB (1GB +1GB max) DDR PC2700
PSU - Octigen 300W model 10270PSOTG ('upgraded' from original Bestec 250W PSU [in 2011?])
Nvidia GeForce 6200 graphics card in AGP slot.

 

Yes, it's a SATA internal. I have an identical eSATA and will test that when I can and post the result.

 

Where's the speed limit likely to be ? Your eSATA interface is probably 3 or GB/s, while the USB 2,0 interface is at most 0.48 GB/s [and my internal IDE is only 8(?) x 0.133GB/s at most (I think it's a 100MB/s actually)]

Please try it, in the light of the result on your other disk, I expect you'll find 0 bad sectors (check: you are looking in log file, not just seeing that the disk 'passed' ?)

Dumb_Question
23.January.2014

Compaq Presario S5160UK DT261A under XP/SP3
Processor - Celeron 2.7 GHz
Motherboard - MSI MS-6577 v2.1
RAM - 1GB + 512MB (1GB +1GB max) DDR PC2700
PSU - Octigen 300W model 10270PSOTG ('upgraded' from original Bestec 250W PSU [in 2011?])
Nvidia GeForce 6200 graphics card in AGP slot.

 

Will do. Might be a day or two though - life gets in the way

 

The first thing I do is check with Seagate to see if the drive is still under warranty. if it's not then why bother testing it. you may well be aware that you should not under any circumstance return a drive without an RMA number, they will swear they never received it.

 

I left this test running while I was out this afternoon - came back to find the drive had failed the test It's a used replacement I only bought a few weeks ago after the original died so I'm pleased you asked me to do this as I had no idea the drive had a problem. So can't help with your question any more unfortunately, except to confirm it was the test log I consulted on the first drive, not simply 'Passed', and to tell you the two drives are reported in HD Tune as Sata 2.0 so have a theoretical speed of 3 Gbps. Have no idea what the real significance of that is as HD Tune tests indicate a read speed of about 75-80 MBps (0.6 Gbps)

 

->Earthling
Unfortunate occurrence, bad luck.
What part of the test did it fail ? Did you try the others Basic tests ? Can you RMA this disk ?
Seagate asked me try SeaTools for DOS in order to do a low level format (this function not available with SeaTools for Windows) on one of my drives which failed SeaTools for Windows (a long shot which didn't work of course)

->oxooxo
I didn't know what happened it you returned a product without an RMA. IF you sent it by recorded delivery, they couldn't very well deny ever receiving it could they ? (unless they refused to accept in which case the item should be returned to sender). However, I've never tried it and am not likely to. You might test a drive that's out of warranty (Seagate website will tell you this automatically unless it was supplied as part of another product such as a playstation or computer) out of curiousity, to find out what condition the drive is in, or if you discover a problem, to investigate the possibility of rectifying or circumventing that problem. Or because someone else asked you to :-D.

Dumb_Question
25.January.2014

 

I speak fom experiance in relation to Seagate, I returned 4 drives to them, 2 with RMA numbers and 2 without, all packed in the same box, they replaced the 2 with RMA No, but they said that the 2 others had not been received, and that I had to prove that they had received them, this went back and forwards for a month, in the end they said they would replace them as a courtesy gesture, they never admitted receiving them.
Wal

 

Oxo, we deal with national distribs instead of Seagate (or just about any HW maker) directly, and the national distribs have far worse things to say about Seagate cooperativeness on returns than any other company.

Our purchasing folks have ended up getting far better discounts on other brands, in fact, just so these national distrib's won't have to deal with Seagate as much. THEN when the Seagate Sales Volumes drop noticeably, Seagate cuts some great discount and their products are re-pushed by the distribs. But there's a fine balancing act between "purchase cost savings" and "hours wasted dealing with returns."

Hitachi (pre Seagate ownership) sometimes phoned our distribs and asked for return quantities to be sent to them without the distrib's own tech folks examining the returned drives first. "We want to see what's going on after they leave our plant..." was the Hitachi mentality, which seems entirely proper for a company interested in engineering.

It was particularly dismaying, therefore, to see Hitachi get purchased by Seagate. I'm hopeful that Toshiba will ramp up and provide a strong competitive force in the HDD market.