I have a strange problem with a Seagate ST3300631A; the drive reports ready and reads the passport in PC3K. Able to access via terminal and everything seems fine BUT a lot of sectors on the drive are duplicates.

For example there will be same 10 sectors (which are identical) then 5 more sectors that are different but identical and then 10 other other duplicate sectors. This is throughout the entire drive... There are some sectors that are unreadable... almost as if the translator or g-list somehow got corrupted or something... I never seen anything like it.. Any input would be appreciated.

Regards

Do I understand you correctly that this pattern is consistent throughout the entire drive surface? Sounds suspiciously like this drive was erased and overwritten with this pattern.