|
I picked up a second one for an external hard drive, but that was maybe a mistake. I've had one of these in my machine for over a year now. The drive is fine, a tad hot and makes some noise, but I've had no issues. I don't think it gets nearly hot enough to hurt the drive or the enclosure, but it does get noticeably toasty. The noise isn't that bad, kind of nice hearing when it is reading/writing.
I had a ST3500630AS in a well cooled Antec case. Clicks started up again and finally the OS (XP Pro) got incredibly slow due to the number of necessary re-reads (and presumably re-writes). The drive started with the "click of death" about 12 months after I installed it. I ran some deep scans and several sectors were found to be defective (though the data was recovered). Replaced the drive and did a successful disk clone and now the system is MUCH faster (lending credence to the theory that that slowness was due to the ST3500630AS starting to fail). It was still under warranty, so it's heading back to Seagate.I usually have very good luck with Seagate, so hopefully this one was just an anomaly.
It was easy to install and works perfectly. This hard drive worked out perfectly for my Netgear RND2150 ReadyNAS Duo 500 GB Desktop Network Attached Storage. You will need to buy some mounting screws though to install it in the ReadyNAS Duo. The packaging was also excellent. It came in an anti-static bag and lodged between two custom plastic pieces to keep it from moving around in the box.
I tend to buy Seagates due to their 5 year warranties though I've never had to take advantage of it. I could feel it sliding around which had me a bit worried. Maxtor is now owned by Seagate so even if you didnt like them in the past, they may be different now though, like I mentioned --- I've never had problems with them even in the pre-Seagate takeover, days. It came with only the drive in a bag and the usual adequate packing. Theres always been a group of people who rabidly bash one brand or another, including Seagate. Probably the brand most often mentioned is Maxtor, but I've never had any big problems with any of them. At the moment 500GB - 1 TB drives are selling at very good prices. The HD I bought was an OEM drive.
Now, with their low prices and free shipping, its my preferred source for many PC parts and an increasing number of other products. However, it's working fine and I havent had any problems with it. I've also received a WD hard disk from Amazon a week ago. Their service was fantastic, they cross shipped the drive and they were very quick in their response. I've purchased 30-40 HDs in the past for my PCs and friends PC's which I helped put together and I've never had any serious problems with any of the brands including Maxtor, Fujitsu, Quantum, WD, Hitachi and Seagate. It did not come with any cables, mounting rails or screws.
I did have a warranty replacement issue with WD when they recalled several HD models eons ago. The Seagate I recently purchased, came directly from Amazon and it was shipped in a sort of loose fashion, inside the box. Amazon now has some of the best prices for increasing amounts of PC hardware and musical instrument items, which they werent that competitive with in the past.
This is a good back up hard drive, but it wasnt formated. will buy many more in the future.
|
