Shop said Seagate Barracuda's are bad for external drives?

[moot]

When I bought my Barracuda drive today, the store clerk told me that they are bad for external hard drives

Basically, I want an external hard drive for backup purposes. Taking advice from these boards I decided on buying a case and a drive separately and putting them together myself.

I bought myself an external firewire case and then decided on a seagate barracuda drive to put in it. Lots of people on this forum have recommended them.

However I was a little worried about the warranty. I knew about Seagate's 5 year warranty but had also read up on their strict terms. Apparently, if you buy an OEM drive then there is a good chance that the drive is not covered in their warranty program. You should buy from an authorized distributor.

So I decided to buy one from a big store even though I could find it a little cheaper on the net. When I got to this big store, I asked the clerk if their drives were included in Seagate's program. They told me sometimes yes and sometimes no. But if I wanted to buy from them, I could first check the s/n on Seagate's website. He helped me to do this and we discovered that the drive I wanted WAS covered until 2011. "Oh great" I thought.

However, he then told me that Seagate's warranty is really strict. If they think that I am in any way responsible for the malfunction then I would not be covered. For example, if I put the drive in the wrong type of external drive and the voltage was wrong then I would not be covered. He then said that Barracuda's often fail when put in external hard drive cases. He said that Barracuda's need a high constant voltage and many external's are not good at providing this. So, they often fail and are not covered by warranty because it would be my fault for using a bad case.

I bought the drive anyway. A Seagate Barracuda 2700.9 ST3250824A.
Now, however I am worried and so have not yet opened it.

I would love some advice what to do. Should I return the drive and buy a Maxtor as he suggested, or fit it into my external and take the risk.

Please help

 

[Eidorian]

If you want the warranty stick with a retail drive and not the OEM. You're going to get a 5-year warranty.

 

[moot]

If you want the warranty stick with a retail drive and not the OEM. You're going to get a 5-year warranty.

I think I do have the warranty. At least it says that on Seagate's support page when I put in my s/n. It says my drive is covered by them until 2011.

What I am worried about is if they refuse to honor their warranty and say any malfunction is my fault because I used an external hard drive case. The store clerk said that they often fail in externals beacuse of poor power supply. And then the warranty would not cover it!

 

[Mord]

dont tell them it's running in an enclosure then.

seagates are kick ass, i have them running in my g4 cubes, without fault, they consume less power and are quieter than other drives, older seagates only pulled 5v not a mix of both 12 and 5 which caused problems in older caddys but now they use both lines and draw power evenly

 

[moot]

dont tell them it's running in an enclosure then.

seagates are kick ass, i have them running in my g4 cubes, without fault, they consume less power and are quieter than other drives, older seagates only pulled 5v not a mix of both 12 and 5 which caused problems in older caddys but now they use both lines and draw power evenly

That's what everyone says and that is why I wanted to buy a seagate.

But if it breaks as the clerk said, is there any way for seagate to tell that I was running it in an enclosure?

 

[CanadaRAM]

Idiot salesman wants to make sure you have your full dose of FUD* if you're not gonna buy the $300 external drive from him.

OF COURSE if you put ANY drive into a substandard case without enough cooling or without enough power to support the drive, it will fail. If you damage a drive through overheating or mishandling, any manyfacturer could void the warranty. But that's like saying "Sure, you can buy this car, but I advise you never to drive it anywhere because Ford will void your warranty if you drive it into a lamp standard."

So just get a good quality case that the manufacturer specifically rates for drives of your capacity. It doesn't have to be fan-cooled, the aluminum radiant-cooling cases will work too. DONT stack a case closely with other gear, or pile papers on it, or put it in a desk drawer.


* Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt -- if you can't sell your product on its merits, then try to get the customer to second guess his choice by introducing selective negative information designed to induce FUD about competitive products.

 

[moot]

Idiot salesman wants to make sure you have your full dose of FUD* if you're not gonna buy the $300 external drive from him.

OF COURSE if you put ANY drive into a substandard case without enough cooling or without enough power to support the drive, it will fail. If you damage a drive through overheating or mishandling, any manufacturer could void the warranty. But that's like saying "Sure, you can buy this car, but I advise you never to drive it anywhere because Ford will void your warranty if you drive it into a lamp standard."

So just get a good quality case that the manufacturer specifically rates for drives of your capacity. It doesn't have to be fan-cooled, the aluminum radiant-cooling cases will work too. DONT stack a case closely with other gear, or pile papers on it, or put it in a desk drawer.


* Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt -- if you can't sell your product on its merits, then try to get the customer to second guess his choice by introducing selective negative information designed to induce FUD about competitive products.

Very true. But the sales clerk was actually really nice. He even helped me by opening the drive's box to find that drive's s/n and then putting that number into seagate's web site to find out if it was eligible for the 5 year warranty program. If it wasn't, he would have tried to find one that was.

He actually mentioned the external drive problem to try to help me out as I was so interested in the warranty situation.

I think my external is of OK quality. It has no fan but is made of aluminum. And I won't be using it all the time - it is to backup my iBook. Most of the time it will not be even plugged in to the power socket. Maybe once a week at most!

Problem is I don't really know if my case is good or not. I live in Japan and bought a Japanese brand as I couldn't find any of the brands recommended by forum members. It is made by a company called "NOVAC".

Anyway, thanks for your help.

 

[yg17]

Very true. But the sales clerk was actually really nice. He even helped me by opening the drive's box to find that drive's s/n and then putting that number into seagate's web site to find out if it was eligible for the 5 year warranty program. If it wasn't, he would have tried to find one that was.

Just because he's nice doesn't mean he's not an idiot

 

[iTwitch]

I'm using a 7200.9 ST3160812A in an external enclosure and it's been fine. Anyway, I think the problem was/is: the 7200.9 series needs alot of power to spin up and many early enclosures weren't suppling enough power. Many enclosure manufacturers have since beefed up their power supplies. If your drive spins up in your enclosure you should be fine.