Are Seagate 1.5TB drives any good?

Z

zdobson

macrumors 6502
The price is right and I want to buy a couple, but I've been hearing mixed reviews on these. I've heard that there was a firmware issue that was supposedly fixed. What do people know about these? Would it be safer to buy 1TB instead?
 
The bigger a hard drive is, the harder it is for them to access all of the data efficiently. I wouldn't go over 1tb. Besides, will you really ever be able to fill it? :p
 
These drives have had a very poor track record. I would advise sticking with the 1TB drives or going up to 2TB drives (after waiting a while to make sure that there aren't problems like the 1.5TB)
 
The company that I work for just got in a new HP ProLiant server with 8 of these drives, and just as soon got an emergency notice from HP to immediately update the firmware in all of the drives; these drives use HP-branded firmware, but I am quite sure it is really Seagate that produces the firmware and rebrands it. This does not bode well for these drives or for Seagate, which has had a slew of firmware issues of late with their drives (everything from 750GB and up). I would personally stay far away from anything Seagate for the present.
 
Tallest Skil said:
No. Please actually search.
Click to expand...
No need to be short.

Googon said:
The bigger a hard drive is, the harder it is for them to access all of the data efficiently. I wouldn't go over 1tb. Besides, will you really ever be able to fill it? :p
Click to expand...

Right now I'm shooting a lot of jobs that are 15GB or more. When I get my new cameras in a couple months, that number is going to be closer to 40.

geoffreak said:
These drives have had a very poor track record. I would advise sticking with the 1TB drives or going up to 2TB drives (after waiting a while to make sure that there aren't problems like the 1.5TB)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Since the 2TB drives are $300 and this 1TB drive is $88, I think I'll go with the 1.
 
They used to suck.

Seagate finally got the firmware right and they are fine now.

When they first came out, you could use them for a week or two and out of the blue, the drive would just disappear. Even the BIOS couldn't see them. Seagate would just send you a refurb and didn't admit there was anything wrong, but they kept selling them.

This used to happen with the 1TB drives too.

I just picked up 4 of these drives a few weeks ago from Dell. They were selling them (with a coupon) for $83. Best deal I've gotten all year.

I've been running them 24 hours a day for the last couple of weeks, and not so much as an error on them.

If you buy them, check the firmware out of the box and go to seagates website to see if the drive is affected. If so, update the firmware before you use them.

Firmware Check

Serial Number Checker
 
Googon said:
The bigger a hard drive is, the harder it is for them to access all of the data efficiently. I wouldn't go over 1tb. Besides, will you really ever be able to fill it? :p
Click to expand...

Ha-ha-ha... (Pronounced with the -s with 1 second of pause.) That's possible... With me.
 
danny_w said:
The company that I work for just got in a new HP ProLiant server with 8 of these drives, and just as soon got an emergency notice from HP to immediately update the firmware in all of the drives; these drives use HP-branded firmware, but I am quite sure it is really Seagate that produces the firmware and rebrands it. This does not bode well for these drives or for Seagate, which has had a slew of firmware issues of late with their drives (everything from 750GB and up). I would personally stay far away from anything Seagate for the present.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is a genuine emergency. It affects (potentially) the entire 7200.11 line, which means 500GB drives, and (I think) 320GB. I had to update 3 drives, two of which were in G5s, so I had to move them over to PCs to run the firmware update.

Number one rule: stop turning the drives off/rebooting/sleeping until they can be firmware updated. Backup important data immediately. Perform the firmware update as soon as possible after that.

If the drive dies, the data isn't gone. Contact Seagate, or if you're adventurous and knowledgeable, look around on the Internet. Some people have figured out how to bring the drives back to life with special hardware/cables.

Make sure you know what kind of drive is in any external drive enclosures you might own, and address them as well if needed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Back
Top