HDD GURU FORUMS

(tried to post this earlier and I can't find it. it's not in my "View your posts" page. so hopefully this won't be a double post.)
I'm a newbie as far as hard disk drives go. I know a couple of minor things but not enough to be on the level with you guys at all. But this is my issue.

I have a Seagate external USB 300G FreeAgent Classic Desktop (one of the old ones) hard drive that might be failing. When my son had Linux Ubuntu on my computer for a short time recently, it kept giving me a notification that my FreeAgent drive has "many bad sectors". Now, I know that Seagate has a utilities application, more than one actually, that will do what I need. But I can't get any of them to install in Safe Mode (something about the install wizard, i think?). (having BSoD issues with my Win XP C: drive and I can't boot into anything but Safe Mode... trying to get my computer fixed and backed up to the point that I can format my C: drive and hopefully upgrade to Windows 7.... if I don't have issues with my "antiquated" 2006 motherboard *sigh* but that's not the issue here, obviously)

Anyway, I need something that's easy to use and understand, cuz I don't know all the terminology, that will check my USB drive thoroughly and either repair the bad sectors or lock them out so they're not accessible anymore (I think my Dad told me once that that is something that SeaTools can do? Maybe I'm remembering wrong). I have an Associate's of Applied Science in Electromechanical Technology, so I have some electronics background... but I never was able to get a job in it, it's been over 15 years now, and I've become disabled and have problems with memory... so, blah, I don't remember a lot of it. (I can count in binary though. *laugh*) I am a pretty smart gal and I've been using computers and the internet since 1997. I just need something that's not too difficult or technical to use.

I did download HDDScan, I think it was called, and will use it while waiting for a reply here to at least do a scan on the drive. I saw the MHDD(?) program but it looks like it might be kinda complicated to use... and being that it runs in DOS (on bootup, I would imagine), I wouldn't be able to look up info and help online at the same time.

OH, and important thing to know... I've already copied everything off the drive and put it on my second internal drive, so I don't need the info on the USB FreeAgent.

I just completed an Extended S.M.A.R.T. scan but I'm not sure how to get the report from it. But I clicked the "S.M.A.R.T." button next to the "Tasks" button and I get the same report I got before I scanned. But I'm including a screenshot of it. I dunno what it all means, but hopefully it'll help you guys to help me... or give me an idea of where to go from here. =)

Thanks for reading my long message. I tend to talk (and type) too much. =)

the problem with seagate drives now is they are failing bigtime.
they have gone downhill not for quality

the hard drive will have bad sectors infact your be hitting on 30,000 or more.

i would send it back to seagate as there 3 years return.
there not much you can do

running programs wont get rid of bad sectors

the drive you have is not repairable

as i had the same problem.

sooner or later it will happen with crc errors on the drive in windows

dont chance using the drive as you will loose your data for good

Really? =( That's not good at all. Cuz both of my internals are Seagate drives as well.

And no, I know that programs can't fix the bad sectors, but they can mark them as unusable and reallocate to the extra sectors that come standard in HDDs. (can you tell I've been doing a little reading? *rofl*)

I finally got my computer to boot up into normal Windows XP and downloaded and installed DiscWizard from Seagate's site, burned it to a disc, and used it to Zero-fill the drive. Then when I booted back up into Windows, I formatted the drive. I was hoping that would take care of it for now.

So are other people having severe issues with all of Seagate's drives like craig6928 said?

Hi,
if smart problem shows you need to fix with pc3000,salvationdata or chunhua tools..

only way to solve the issue otherwise send for warranty ..

Anjalena wrote:Really? =( That's not good at all. Cuz both of my internals are Seagate drives as well.

And no, I know that programs can't fix the bad sectors, but they can mark them as unusable and reallocate to the extra sectors that come standard in HDDs. (can you tell I've been doing a little reading? *rofl*)

I finally got my computer to boot up into normal Windows XP and downloaded and installed DiscWizard from Seagate's site, burned it to a disc, and used it to Zero-fill the drive. Then when I booted back up into Windows, I formatted the drive. I was hoping that would take care of it for now.

So are other people having severe issues with all of Seagate's drives like craig6928 said?

your lucky then as i had a seagate brand new from a stores and with in two months failed.
they gone crap now

use to be good but not any more.

Kinda a broad overview of an entire manufacturer just because you got one bad drive, don'tcha think? Bad drives happen on occasion.

well seagate are crap they use to be good then they turned crap
and they are trying to stop data recovery companys from recovering data from them.