Should I RMA my HDD again?

[XmutanoX]

Recently i had problems with one of my HDD being extremely slow and yellow warning on Crystal Disk, after that I switched my windows and boot drive to another HDD (ST2000DM008) which I only used for games and steam, but when i started using it for Windows i noticed A LOT of stuttering doing the almost everything, especially when installing something or sending files to it. I ran some tests on HD tune and got these results which I interpreted as a bad HDD and sent it to RMA.

https://imgur.com/a/92aDsbY

After almost a month, I got a new HDD from RMA and been using for the last 2 weeks, but since it arrived i've been feeling the HDD has the same problems from the old one (even thought they sent the same HDD but the serial number is different) and a lot of stuttering/freezing programs happening, especially when installing a game or transfering files, also when i try to install ANY game from steam it keeps going to 0 mb/s and disk usage drops like hell (this never happened until this new HDD


So i got to test this new HDD and for my suprise the results seem pretty similar to the old HDD I sent to RMA and even some speeds look WORST than the old one, so can anyone actually help me looking at these results and actually telling me if the HDD has a problem or not before I open RMA again? Because if I need to use warranty again for something they already sent me I need to be absolute sure to fight for a decent HDD to be sent to me this time. These are the new results

https://imgur.com/a/1PtKcGp

 

[FreedomEclipse]

@seagate_surfer

 

[XmutanoX]

This is the test using a new cable and another SATA port and still the same results, I will try next to change the sata power cable but i don't think the results will change. Also I like to remember that the steam problem is just one of the problems i'm having, I also get a LOT of stuttering/freezing when the HDD is doing some installations or transfering and also when gaming. Also it's pretty weird that by the end of the test the speed just goes UP and try to estabilize even with the sudden drops

https://imgur.com/a/LPFzG3D

 

[spectatorx]

By specification hdd is a decent piece of hardware but... this is seagate, i do not trust them at all. Once i purchased new seagate drive and it failed three weeks later. RMA without hesitation. This drive shouldn't have symptoms which you describe it has.

 

[PerfectWave]

The best tool to use if it is a Seagate drive is Seatools. ^^

 

[Ferrum Master]

My five cents? The head overheats... It is not meant for such torture test.

 

[phill]

Is the drive being actively cooled, fan in front of it etc? Is the model of drive a Barracuda drive?

 

[XmutanoX]

The best tool to use if it is a Seagate drive is Seatools. ^^

The seagate tools doesn't have any read/write visual test, it just says PASS or FAIL which doesn't help at all in this condition, last time i used for the HDD i RMA'd and it passed everything besides the FIX ALL which made me ask for a new, despite all previous tests also presenting a problem with the last HDD, now the new one is showing the exact same results

 

[claylomax]

What's the temps on the drive while testing? You didn't mention... or I missed it.

 

[XmutanoX]

Is the drive being actively cooled, fan in front of it etc? Is the model of drive a Barracuda drive?

The only fan directly at it is the front case fan, but the temperature is reasonable I think, right now is showing 38 C which is after the stress test, during the test it gets to 45 C AT MOST which is well under the 55 C limit for HDDs

What's the temps on the drive while testing? You didn't mention... or I missed it.

You can see the temperatures on the tests, it's on the right of the model of the drive and next to a bunch of buttons

 

[claylomax]

The only fan directly at it is the front case fan, but the temperature is reasonable I think, right now is showing 38 C which is after the stress test, during the test it gets to 45 C AT MOST which is well under the 55 C limit for HDDs


You can see the temperatures on the tests, it's on the right of the model of the drive and next to a bunch of buttons

41-43c seem a bit high to me.
I have the 4TB version and is at 30c.

 

[XmutanoX]

Apparently I discovered from another forum that a lot of those HDDs of 2TB or higher from Seagate are SMR and they don't put this information ANYWHERE, and SMR HDDs tend to behave exactly like mine is doing now. I'm trying to find a way to actually check if mine is SMR or not and hope that seagate would try to solve my problem with this one or else i'm a lot of trouble since this is my only HDD and i need it for Windows and games right now :/

41-43c seem a bit high to me.
I have the 4TB version and is at 30c.

Even at 50 C it shouldn't be happening any problems, especially for a new HDD from RMA, apparently the problem can be this SMR thing which the problem now is finding a way to test if it really is that, maybe if it is I can demand an explanation and solution from Seagate

 

[phill]

The only fan directly at it is the front case fan, but the temperature is reasonable I think, right now is showing 38 C which is after the stress test, during the test it gets to 45 C AT MOST which is well under the 55 C limit for HDDs


You can see the temperatures on the tests, it's on the right of the model of the drive and next to a bunch of buttons

If I'm honest it's still a little high, I aim to keep drives around the 25C to 30C mark even under use. My Synology server is about that most of the time but they are only 5400 RPM. I wouldn't hope that 7200 RPM drives are going to increase the temps that much if the air flow around the drives is good

 

[XmutanoX]

So i borrowed another HDD for testing, the model is ST1000DM003, installed windows and everything for running it normally, my first test was downloading from steam and guess what: no drop problems on download

so i ran the HD tune on both HDs both using their respective windows installation and these are the results:

https://imgur.com/a/dECdDQE

So basically, using windows on the HDD being benchmarked causes a bunch of drops which everyone knows it, but the problem on the ST2000DM008 persists even when windows is on another HDD, the speed keeps going up and down for almost the WHOLE test, with a HUGE spike to the top in the middle and for no reason at the end it just goes up and "estabilizes", is this enough to open RMA again or should i just give up because this model is just bad?

 

[ChristTheGreat]

don't this 2TB model (DM008) use SMR? instead of PMR like the ST1000DM003 ?

Hard Drive Buying Tips: Figuring Out What Hard Drive You Should Buy

If you have “buy a hard drive” on your shopping list, here is a checklist based on your needs of everything you need to know to make the right purchase.

www.backblaze.com

PMR: Perpendicular Magnetic RecordingThis is the technology inside of most hard drives. With PMR data is written to and read from circular tracks on a spinning platter.

SMR: Shingled Magnetic RecordingThis type of drive overlaps recording tracks to store data at a lower cost than PMR technology. The downside occurs when data is deleted and that space is reused. If existing data overlaps the space you want to reuse, this can mean delays in writing the new data. These drives are great for archive storage (write once, read many) use cases, but if your files turn over with some regularity, stick with PMR drives.

That sounds simple, but here are two things you should know:

1. SMR drives are often the least expensive drives available when you consider the cost per gigabyte. If you are price sensitive, you may believe you are getting a great deal, but you may be buying the wrong drive for your use case. For example, buying SMR drives for your NAS device running RAID 6 would be ugly because of all the rewrites that may be involved.
2. It is sometimes really hard to figure out if the drive you want to buy is an SMR or PMR drive. For example, based on the cost per gigabyte, the 8TB Seagate external drive (model: STEB8000100) is one of the least expensive external drives out there right now (source: diskprices.com). But, the 8TB drive inside is an SMR drive, and that fact is not obvious to the buyer. To be fair, the manufacturers try to guide buyers to the right drive for their use case, but a lot of that guiding information is lost on reseller sites such as Amazon and Newegg, where the buyer is often blinded by price.

IMO, don't use an HDD for OS, just buy an SSD for the OS..

 

[XmutanoX]

the problem is having also a HDD for games, since idk if SMR HDDS are also bad for having games installed on them or i can just keep it as a games HDD while having a SSD for OS and have no problems at all, can someone

 

[AsRock]

41-43c seem a bit high to me.
I have the 4TB version and is at 30c.

Yeah but the UK isn't all that hot to begin with, in fact a HDD to cool can make problems too.

The program i like using, their is a trail version to( some options disable after amount of days, also tell your min\max temps and such too.

Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD health and temperature monitoring

Monitoring hard disk health and temperature. Test and repair HDD problems, predict disk failure.

www.hdsentinel.com

RMA it again.

 

[newtekie1]

don't this 2TB model (DM008) use SMR? instead of PMR like the ST1000DM003 ?

I don't think Seagate used SMR on any of their Barracuda drives, at least not the small 2TB ones. The SMR drives were used on their archive drives. Either way, SMR wouldn't give read issues, only write issues. And they start out fast, then get really slow after the PMR cache is used up. His results are the opposite.

 

[ChristTheGreat]

I don't think Seagate used SMR on any of their Barracuda drives, at least not the small 2TB ones. The SMR drives were used on their archive drives. Either way, SMR wouldn't give read issues, only write issues. And they start out fast, then get really slow after the PMR cache is used up. His results are the opposite.

I saw that a 256mb cache version is a good sign. Maybe i am wrong but if multiple same drive have the same behavior, than a 1tb older model, thats why i suspect. I have a customer who has a 3tb dm003 or 005, no issue at all with os on this drive

 

[XmutanoX]

So anyway, should i or should i not RMA this 2TB HDD? it clearly has a read problem even without an OS on it

 

[spectatorx]

RMA it asap. Drive is faulty so that's your only way to go with it. Well, ok, there is other way, buy new drive and send this one on RMA but i imagine you don't want to do this.

 

[DrakeFrst]

It definitely seems like throttling to me but if you're saying that temps are ok - just RMA it, way easier than trying to figure out what's wrong with it. either corrupt,bad sectors, too used and needs a defragmentation or whatever, too much to figure out.

 

[newtekie1]

I saw that a 256mb cache version is a good sign. Maybe i am wrong but if multiple same drive have the same behavior, than a 1tb older model, thats why i suspect. I have a customer who has a 3tb dm003 or 005, no issue at all with os on this drive

SMR drives only really show that they are SMR during writes. Read tests won't really be able to determine if the drive is SMR.

This is a 5TB SMR next to a 4TB PRM drive. Note now you really can't tell the difference from an HDTune benchmark.

Also know that these are both 5900RPM drives, hence the lower read speeds and higher access times.

Also, I know if you search for the model number of the 5TB drive it will come up as a Barracuda drive, it is not actually a Barracuda drive. Seagate simply labels it a "Desktop Drive", retails have tacked the Barracuda name onto it. But what has actually happened is these are drives that are supposed to be used in external enclosures. People have shucked the drives from the enclosures(or intercepted shipments before they even went into external drives) and are selling the bare drives and calling them Barracuda drives.

So anyway, should i or should i not RMA this 2TB HDD? it clearly has a read problem even without an OS on it

Yes, I would.

This graph, where you are testing the drive without Windows running from the drive is very wrong looking. There is something very strange going on with this drive. You should have a steady slope downward, like what I posted above. But it looks like for some reason at the ~1500GB mark, the drive just shoots up and starts reading instanely fast. Also, there are a lot of access times that are near 0, which should only happen with an SSD. In fact, at the ~1500GB mark, it seems like this drive just start to read exactly like an SSD does, but that shouldn't happen unless there is some kind of SSD cache happening.

I'd also be insterested in seeing an error scan of the drive too, as well as a speed map once the error scan is finished.

But either way, I think an RMA is in order, because something ain't right with that drive.

 

[XmutanoX]

When i have the time I will try to do an error scan on it to check if something comes up, i did a quick one but it came clean so i'm gonna try the long scan this time, also what's a speed map?

Ok i made error scans on both HDs, they both had no errors and these are their speed maps:

1TB HD (the borrowed one)

2TB HD (faulty one)

I also noticed that this 2TB HD is the only one that gets beyond 40C everytime it's on stress for some reason

 

[newtekie1]

Yeah, somethings not write with that drive, and heck the 1TB drive is even on its way out. But that 2TB is definitely screwed up. It almost looks like the head is getting stuck at a certain point.

RMA it.