New Seagate Momentus 500GB 7200 Laptop Drives Bad Health

[silversurfernhs]

I purchased two new Seagate drives 500GB 7200 16mb 2.5" drives for my HDX Dragon laptop, replacing the 320 5400rpm stock drive. I ran the program HDD Health which is a program that reads the drives SMART status and tells you the drives "health" within windows.

I would expect these new drives to have 100 percent or at least in the 90s, but one of them is 98% which is ok, and the second is at 68%.

What do you guys think about this?
Do you think i should try and RMA the drives (i know they might not but i'll make something up to get them to replace the drive (at least the 68% one) before the warranty goes bad.

Also i get a WEI of 5.9 for them, is that an acceptable upgrade from 5.6, i had a little higher expectations.

Also i was wondering how to make them look like a single drive within windows, but my laptop doesnt have raid. I heard about making the drives dynamic... but i heard it was a convoluted mess to say the least.

Any input from you guys would be awesome and greatly appreciated

Robert

Specs:
HP HDX Dragon 9494nr
Windows 7 Ultimate 64
20.1" 1680x1050
C2D T8100 2.1Ghz 3Mb
4GB 667 DDR2
8800m GTS 512mb
2x500GB 7200RPM Seagates

P.S.
On a lesser important note, i am hoping to upgrade this laptop eventually to extend its life (i spent a lot of money when i got it for school) and i am hoping my second and third upgrade will be 8GB DDR2 667 from the 4 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226047 ). Then the CPU to a P9600 2.8 6Mb ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819111006 )

Any thoughts?

 

[jonathan7007]

I purchased two new Seagate drives 500GB 7200 16mb 2.5" drives for my HDX Dragon laptop, replacing the 320 5400rpm stock drive. I ran the program HDD Health which is a program that reads the drives SMART status and tells you the drives "health" within windows.

I would expect these new drives to have 100 percent or at least in the 90s, but one of them is 98% which is ok, and the second is at 68%.


Robert,
Were these drives packaged as retail units in Seagate boxes or "bare drive" units? I believe you have an easier time exchanging retail product. I also wonder where those bare drive units come from.

I ask because I wanted to buy one or more of these to put into little enclosures for digital photography workflows -- and I got a feeling there were more problems with this model than appropriate. I haven't been able to find enough real reviews or user experience. (that I can trust...)

jonathan 7007

 

[silversurfernhs]

Retail, which leads me do believe (the way retail is...) that they may have been dropped or what not, but RMAing the drives for factory shipped ones may give me better handled products...

 

[leon2006]

Get it replaced from seagate or the retailer

 

[Mimoso]

Health percentages don't mean much. You should post the entire SMART status.

 

[hschmidt]

I seem to have the same problem. My brand new Seagate Momentum 320 shows a health status of 56%! In the detailed status (I use Active Hard Disk Monitor) everything is at 100% except for Raw Read Error Rate (56%) and Seek Error Rate (61%). Still, the health status is displayed as "ok" (green). I don't know what to make of it... Is my HD good or should I try to replace it?