Friday, January 9, 2009

Seagate/Maxtor SeaTools Drive Diagnostic - Problems/Solutions

I had a hard time testing some new Seagate ST31000340NS drives recently, and here is what I learned.

  • Always test new drives ASAP so you can return defective drives within warantee period, and avoid lots of wasted work/installs/reinstalls.
  • Download the Seagate SeaTools (also works for Maxtor) DOS ISO for drive testing, and burn the CD (I downloaded v2.13B on Jan-7-2009).
  • The SeaTools Windows version doesn't generally work in Vista x64 (Known problem). Though a certain hack/fix (from this discussion) might work for you in Vista 64 bit. It worked better for me, but I think my hardware hindered the drive detection.
  • Connecting the SATA drive externally via eSATA works great for drive testing (I used a Rosewill eSATA enclosure).
  • My A7N8X Deluxe based computer would not boot with the drive attached. After drive detection, the machine hung.
  • My P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP based machine booted from the SeaTools CD no problem.
  • The SeaTools software must have a floppy disk in the A drive (possibly writeable) or the long test will not complete. After the test, the floppy disk was completely empty. I put the CD and floppy in, then booted.
  • I ran the Short Test, the Long Test and the Acoustic Test, taking a digital photo of the results of each.
  • I also photographed the drive. The photos are for my inventory and testing results.
If you were wondering my new drives tested as flawless.

-AAron