New Seagate HDD - Potential Issue?

[Rob893]

My first PC build is pretty much complete. It is all up and running and had no issues at all with it (currently running off of a 120gb Kingston SSD). All that it's missing is a large HDD to store media and the like on. I decided on the Seagate Barracuda 2TB as my HDD of choice.

I ordered my HDD a couple of weeks back but was not convinced with how it was packed. I flagged this with the company I purchased from and they agreed (it was left loose in a large bag about 6 times the size of the HDD and was wrapped in a single layer of bubble wrap). I sent it back and received a new one today and to my surprise was packaged exactly the same except with an extra layer of bubble wrap. I opened it anyway and installed it on my new build with no problems.

I downloaded the Seagate Seatools to run a few tests to see what state it was in and it passed the SMART and short generic test no problem. It is currently running the long generic test as I type this, it estimated about 5 minutes to complete, but is currently 2 hours in and only a third of the way through.

What is going on? Is my new HDD likely to be damaged? Are there any other tests I can do to confirm this? Or am I worrying over nothing?

Also, how should a HDD be shipped? Is this satisfactory?

All help appreciated - I'm new to this!

Thanks

Rob

 

[elmo2006]

My first PC build is pretty much complete. It is all up and running and had no issues at all with it (currently running off of a 120gb Kingston SSD). All that it's missing is a large HDD to store media and the like on. I decided on the Seagate Barracuda 2TB as my HDD of choice.

I ordered my HDD a couple of weeks back but was not convinced with how it was packed. I flagged this with the company I purchased from and they agreed (it was left loose in a large bag about 6 times the size of the HDD and was wrapped in a single layer of bubble wrap). I sent it back and received a new one today and to my surprise was packaged exactly the same except with an extra layer of bubble wrap. I opened it anyway and installed it on my new build with no problems.

I downloaded the Seagate Seatools to run a few tests to see what state it was in and it passed the SMART and short generic test no problem. It is currently running the long generic test as I type this, it estimated about 5 minutes to complete, but is currently 2 hours in and only a third of the way through.

What is going on? Is my new HDD likely to be damaged? Are there any other tests I can do to confirm this? Or am I worrying over nothing?

Also, how should a HDD be shipped? Is this satisfactory?

All help appreciated - I'm new to this!

Thanks

Rob

Sometimes the drives take longer than what is approximated using the drive utilities. When I performed the long test using the WD tools on a 3TB drive, it started off with a remaining time of 8 hours but then a few hours later the actual completion time was 5+ hours.

Once the test has completed, it should provide a log if there were any issues (bad sectors etc) or not.

How thick was the bubble-tape wrap? I've seen bubble-tape packaging that is almost an inch thick however the containing carton was not much larger moreso a perfect fit.

As for packaging, merchants all differ on how they package their products. Some are better and some are worse than others. You did right by contacting the merchant to communicate your concerns, however there is a possibility that the same drive that you returned is the same drive that was shipped back to you.

Have you ordered from this company prior and if so, have you been happy? If this is the first time then a decision has to be made to either have the drive shipped back again and go somewhere else or simply continue to use the drive and if something goes wrong, then the drive can be RMA'd via the manufacturer but incurring a "ship to" cost.

 

[Rob893]

Well, thinking about it. I may have misread the '5:00' to be 5 minutes, rather than 5 hours. But then I don't know how long it should take. There were no issues with any of the tests, it's not making any strange noises and it seems to be performing as it should be.

The HDD was in an anti static bag with quite thick bubble wrap (the large bubbles, not the small ones) wrapped around it and then placed in a large bag. I did ask and that is apparently how they ship them so it must be satisfactory, especially as I bought it from a retailer who specialises in PC hardware.

This is the first time I have ordered from this particular merchant. I am not 100% satisfied, no, so I would think pretty hard about buying from them again. As it seems to be working fine at the moment I can't really be bothered with the hassle of shipping it back again and going without a HDD. I am just going to back up religiously and see how it goes.

Thanks for your help!