TheShadowFl

Very slow operation and data transfer is a well known HD failure mode.
I just sent a 160gig SATA2 drive back to Seagate for this very reason.
They sent me a new drive with NO questions asked.

Over the years I've replaced dozens of HD's for this same problem.
Check the warranty status of that drive. If it's still in warranty, you might just get a new one.

Cheers Mate!
The Shadow

linderman

I would have to agree with above response

smz

That is sort of funny. Because it was Maxtor that used to always replace my rma drives with new ones or higher capacity ones and Seagate was hard nosed at replacing the exact capacity. How times have changed. But no questions asked has been a maxtor thing too. Once in a while you'll get someone asking what your diagnostic code is, but you can get around that but my saying the drive spins up and down randomly in addition to what the real problem is. They should have better things to do then take a fine comb to a measly drive.

TheShadowFl

The nice thing about doing the RMA request via the internet is that you don't have to sit on HOLD, and you don't have to answer any dumb questions. :)

They can check the warranty status by just referring to the model # and serial #.
The warranty on most new Seagate or Maxtor drives is from 3 to 5 years. It starts when the drive was made, not when it was sold or installed. They can tell from the serial number, exactly the date the drive was made. It's all done via the internet and computers.... there's NO personal contact with a support person.
I've had to RMA several drives in the past couple of years and it always comes off with NO hassle. My only cost is the UPS shipping expense to get the drive to Texas.

As a bit of follow-up, I just received the replacement 160gig SATA2 drive from Seagate.
It was an exact replacement.
UPS Ground takes about five days to get here from Texas.

I encourage anyone with a HD failure, to investigate the manufacturers web site for warranty replacement of the drive.

Cheers Mates!
The Shadow :)

Whytey

I have a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 and Both my other drives are SATA.

Deleted090308

That's why I asked.

Whytey

Ok...

smz

Hey there!

That's my motherboard.

You are a smart guy, lol. Note the raid on our board is limited 2 just 2 of the SATA ports in a crazy config Gigabyte chose. The others are on a different hard drive controller. Only raid0 is supported if you have the same rev as me. You probably aren't concerned with that anyhow.

Though you might want to check your hard drive controller in device manager. Curious to see what controller you are booting off of. One is a chipset named Gigabye and the other I don't use but I've seen Jmicron pop up somewhere, but don't quote me. Make sure if you are runing that gigabyte controller that you are running non stock drivers.

SMZ