Seagate Freeagent + Seatools problems

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asiniv

asiniv

Honorable
Oct 24, 2015
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Hi,
I have 2 Seagate external USB Disks -

a. FreeAgent 1TB, external power supply
b. one Freeagent Go 500 MB, no external power supply.

I've started noticing bad blocks via the event viewer for drive 'a' (FreeAgent 1TB).
So I wanted to run the seagate seatools for better diagnostics (and hopefully a fix).
But for some reason seatools does not recognize any of the above drives (windows and DOS versions). The weird thing is that Up until a couple of weeks ago seatools recognized both my drives correctly. Under computer management both drives are reported correctly (NTFS, size, drive letter). Also, Seagate managers reports that drive 'b' (Freeagent Go 500 MB) is healthy,
so seatools should at least recognize that.
I've tried uninstall / reinstall seatools but no luck.
In the meantime I just ran a complete CHKDSK scan and attempt to repair on drive 'a', in order to at least try to isolate and hopefully fix it's problems.
So -
(1). How do I get Seatools to run in order? why did it suddenly stop recognizing my drives?
(even the healthy one)
Also - What should I do with drive 'a'?
(2). Can I isolate the bad segments somehow and keep working with the drive safely?
perhaps a complete formatting of the drive will help ?
Can I continue to rely on the drive for my backups, or is the drive doomed to fail soon?

any suggestions / advice regarding problem (1) and/or (2) will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
 
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1. Seatools is pretty useless, so I don't know why you're bothering with it. Instead just check the SMART info using a tool like Crystal Disk Info (google it) and see what it's showing for errors on your drives.

2. There's nothing "safe" about a drive that's already developing bad sectors. In fact there is nothing safe about a Seagate drive ever. They fail suddenly, often without warning. So if you're getting some warning, hurry up and backup your important data and dump the drive.

I strongly recommend you stop buying Seagate drives. Their failure rates are nearly 4 times what other companies like Toshiba or HGST are showing.
 
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If you're asking the question about a drive, the answer is generally "no"

If they work, you don't notice and continue to use it.
If they start acting up, people come here and ask..."Can I..?"

Once a drive starts acting up, they never get 'better'.
It may die next year, it may die next week, it may die as I'm typing this.

Once a hard drive starts acting up or making new noises...it will not get better.
Backup your data and replace the drive.
 
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ok, so crystaldisk says the following:
Should I be really worried? or is this a moderate salvageable problem?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskInfo 6.5.2 (C) 2008-2015 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

OS : Windows 7 Professional SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
Date : 2015/12/05 22:48:29

-- Controller Map ----------------------------------------------------------
- Ricoh Memory Stick Controller [ATA]
+ Intel(R) ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller [ATA]
- HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-U20N
- HITACHI HTS722016K9SA00
+ Ricoh SD Host Controller [ATA]
- Ricoh SD/MMC Disk Device
- Ricoh SD/MMC Host Controller [ATA]
- Ricoh xD-Picture Card Controller [ATA]

-- Disk List ---------------------------------------------------------------
(1) HITACHI HTS722016K9SA00 : 160.0 GB [0/0/1, pd1]
(2) ST31000528AS : 1000.2 GB [2/X/X, sa1] (V=0BC2, P=3008) - st

.....
........

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2) ST31000528AS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enclosure : Seagate FreeAgent USB Device (V=0BC2, P=3008, sa1) - st
Model : ST31000528AS
Firmware : CC38
Serial Number : 5VP24KGX
Disk Size : 1000.2 GB (8.4/137.4/1000.2/1000.2)
Buffer Size : Unknown
Queue Depth : 32
# of Sectors : 1953525168
Rotation Rate : 7200 RPM
Interface : USB (Serial ATA)
Major Version : ATA8-ACS
Minor Version : ATA8-ACS version 4
Transfer Mode : ---- | SATA/300
Power On Hours : 20310 hours
Power On Count : 138 count
Temperature : 28 C (82 F)
Health Status : Caution
Features : S.M.A.R.T., AAM, 48bit LBA, NCQ
APM Level : ----
AAM Level : FE00h [ON]

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 116 _95 __6 000006C0D971 Read Error Rate
03 _95 _94 __0 000000000000 Spin-Up Time
04 100 100 _20 000000000262 Start/Stop Count
05 _98 _98 _36 00000000007A Reallocated Sectors Count
07 _69 _60 _30 000000730F12 Seek Error Rate
09 _77 _77 __0 000000004F56 Power-On Hours
0A 100 100 _97 000000000000 Spin Retry Count
0C 100 100 _20 00000000008A Power Cycle Count
B7 100 100 __0 000000000000 Vendor Specific
B8 100 100 _99 000000000000 End-to-End Error
BB __1 __1 __0 000000000962 Reported Uncorrectable Errors
BC 100 _98 __0 000000040007 Command Timeout
BD 100 100 __0 000000000000 High Fly Writes
BE _72 _33 _45 047B1C1C001C Airflow Temperature
C2 _28 _67 __0 00100000001C Temperature
C3 _50 _32 __0 000006C0D971 Hardware ECC recovered
C5 _74 _73 __0 000000000440 Current Pending Sector Count
C6 _74 _73 __0 000000000440 Uncorrectable Sector Count
C7 200 200 __0 000000000000 UltraDMA CRC Error Count
F0 100 253 __0 F3390000032C Head Flying Hours
F1 100 253 __0 000013F965C9 Total Host Writes
F2 100 253 __0 0000DDA04784 Total Host Reads

-- IDENTIFY_DEVICE ---------------------------------------------------------
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
000: 0C5A 3FFF C837 0010 0000 0000 003F 0000 0000 0000
010: 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 3556 5032 344B 4758
020: 0000 0000 0004 4343 3338 2020 2020 5354 3331 3030
030: 3035 3238 4153 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020
040: 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 8010 0000 2F00
050: 4000 0200 0200 0007 3FFF 0010 003F FC10 00FB 0010
060: FFFF 0FFF 0000 0007 0003 0078 0078 0078 0078 0000
070: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 001F 0506 0000 0048 0040
080: 01F0 0029 346B 7F01 4163 3469 BE01 4163 407F 0052
090: 0052 0000 FFFE 0000 FE00 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
100: 6DB0 7470 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 5000 C500
110: 1C56 29AB 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 401E
120: 401C 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0021 6DB0
130: 7470 6DB0 7470 2020 0002 0140 0100 5000 3C06 3C0A
140: 0000 003C 0000 0008 0000 0000 004F 0280 0000 0000
150: 0008 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 3F00 9800
160: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
170: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
180: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
190: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
200: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 103F 0000 0000 0000
210: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1C20 0000 0000
220: 0000 0000 1010 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
230: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
240: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
250: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 36A5

-- SMART_READ_DATA ---------------------------------------------------------
+0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 0A 00 01 0F 00 74 5F 71 D9 C0 06 00 00 00 03 03
010: 00 5F 5E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 32 00 64 64 62
020: 02 00 00 00 00 00 05 33 00 62 62 7A 00 00 00 00
030: 00 00 07 0F 00 45 3C 12 0F 73 00 00 00 00 09 32
040: 00 4D 4D 56 4F 00 00 00 00 00 0A 13 00 64 64 00
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 32 00 64 64 8A 00 00 00 00
060: 00 00 B7 32 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 B8 32
070: 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 BB 32 00 01 01 62
080: 09 00 00 00 00 00 BC 32 00 64 62 07 00 04 00 00
090: 00 00 BD 3A 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 BE 22
0A0: 00 48 21 1C 00 1C 1C 7B 04 00 C2 22 00 1C 43 1C
0B0: 00 00 00 10 00 00 C3 1A 00 32 20 71 D9 C0 06 00
0C0: 00 00 C5 12 00 4A 49 40 04 00 00 00 00 00 C6 10
0D0: 00 4A 49 40 04 00 00 00 00 00 C7 3E 00 C8 C8 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 F0 00 00 64 FD 2C 03 00 00 39
0F0: F3 13 F1 00 00 64 FD C9 65 F9 13 00 00 00 F2 00
100: 00 64 FD 84 47 A0 DD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 82 00 58 02 00 7B
170: 03 00 01 00 01 AF 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 02 05 06 05 06 05 05 05
190: 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 4F 1A E7 CA 84 42 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 01 00 A3 08 C9 65 F9 13 60 00 00 00
1C0: 84 47 A0 DD 6D 0E 00 00 00 00 00 00 B9 66 40 00
1D0: 00 00 00 CA 00 00 00 00 E5 02 00 00 24 00 05 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 30
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 A6

-- SMART_READ_THRESHOLD ----------------------------------------------------
+0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 01 00 01 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00
010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 14 00 00 00 00
020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
030: 00 00 07 1E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 00
040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0A 61 00 00 00 00
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
060: 00 00 B7 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 B8 63
070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 BB 00 00 00 00 00
080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 BC 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 BD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 BE 2D
0A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C2 00 00 00 00 00
0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C3 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C5 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C6 00
0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C7 00 00 00 00 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 F1 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 F2 00
100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 60


 
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OK, started moving everything to my other Seagate drive (FreeAgent Go 500MB) and I'm in the process of uploading as much as I can to google drive (100GB plan, though this process will take some time as my connection is mediocre and I have gigs of photos when not all can be uploaded).

HOWEVER, I'm now quite limited in physical storage space and I cannot afford to buy a new drive at the moment (plus the warranty on this one expired long ago).

Is there anyway to permanently fixate the bad segments so they do not spread any further, and thus continue using the drive safely?
or this is like a stage 4 cancer ? (patient will eventually die)...
 
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The main important thing is 'your data'.
Whether the drive will continue to work or not is a secondary consideration.

Having your photos only on one drive is quite hazardous, as you now see.

Backup your data firs, then mess around with the physical drive.
 
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Agree, and I am doing so. but even if all goes well (which is not, already got some kind of a cyclic redundancy error when trying to copy my FLAC music), At the end I will still be left with only one almost full backup external drive.

Is is possible perhaps to format the defective drive in way which will instruct the system to isolate the bad sectors, in which case 'the rest' of the drive will be considered 'healthy'?
I apologize if this is a dummy question, as I don't have much experience with data storage (the phrase: ''mess around with the physical drive" is quite vague to me).
Thanks in advance!
 
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oh well, be it so, hope I caught it soon enough so no actual loss will be felt.

any chance you might be able to at least help me figure out why SeaTools is acting up?
(the way I figure it, the least I can do is give the official tools a try, that is if I can get them to work properly)...
 
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