To RMA or not to RMA?

[ad_rach]

Sorry.This post is in completely the wrong section but I wanted it to be read so I put it here.
I just bought a new Seagate 80GB 7200.7 SATA Hard drive and I am wondering whether or not it needs RMAing.Basically, when I got it to replace my old IBM Desktstar 120GXP about a week ago I did a completely fresh install of windows xp pro and it has run perfectly until this morning.When I turned it on this morning CheckDisk started running and 'recovering orphaned files' for a few minutes.It is now running fine again but I am wondering whether there is a problem with the drive and whether I should return it while I can.I would really rather not have to go to the hassle of having to do so but if the drive is going to fail on me at some point I would like to prevent it.What should I do?Does anyone know of a diagnostic tool I can use to check if the drive is faulty?
Just in case, here are my specs:
Athlon XP 2400 @ 166X13
Abit NF7-S V1.0
2X256MB Twinmos PC2700
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA 80 GB (ST380013AS)
Windows XP Pro

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[slvr_phoenix]

If a drive is going to go bad, it's usually from mechanical damage during shipping. So luckily most bad drives will fail very soon after purchase.

With WinXP Checkdisk/Scan Disk have become almost completely useless. It really f-ing sucks. I'd take MS DOS 6's Scan Disk over WinXP's any day.

On the plus side though I'd imagine that all major hard drive vendors have their own software tools now, and probably all for free. I very quickly uncovered <A HREF="http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools" target="_new">Seagate's stuffus</A>. I didn't look too deep, but hopefully there's something there that will help you.

But I was even surprised when the other day a co-worker's PC started acting funny and our official company PC Technician came in with a disk from Dell with a bunch of actually useful DOS-driven diagnostic softwares. I was shocked. I didn't think Dell was that intelligent. **ROFL** Maybe OEMs are changing. But definately diagnostic softwares are becoming so common that most major vendors seem to have their own package.

<pre><A HREF="http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20030905" target="_new"><font color=black>People don't understand how hard being a dark god can be. - Hastur</font color=black></A></pre><p>

 

[ad_rach]

Thanks for the info.
I tried using seagate's diagnostic tools with mixed success.The quick test worked fine and told me that my hard drive was ok but when i tried to do the full test it didn't seem to be doing anything and when i left it for a few hours and came back it hadn't made any progress so i cancelled it.When you start the test it asks if you want the drive to self-test or not and says that if you say 'yes', it will not test it 'through your computer'-seems a bit vague to me.On both tests I clicked 'yes' because it was the default (and, as i said, the quick test worked) but do you think i should try clicking 'no' for the full test to see if that works?

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[slvr_phoenix]

I've no idea. I'm not familiar with the software. Ideally what you want is for it to do a 'surface scan' AKA a write/read test across every single bit on the hard drive. It was an easy option to run under old versions of Scan Disk. I <i>think</i> WinXP's CheckDisk will do one as well if you enable the scan for bad sectors option, but I'm not sure if it's output will be in any way useful since M$ seems to think that we've all forgotten how to think.

<pre><A HREF="http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20030905" target="_new"><font color=black>People don't understand how hard being a dark god can be. - Hastur</font color=black></A></pre><p>

 

[SJJM]

If the tool is doing sector by sector, then it might take a very very very long time to check to see if the hard drive is bad. You might just leave your computer on over night, so that it can finish checking for problems. I believe that it can take up to 24 hrs on a really big hard drive for a the surface scan.

<font color=blue>"You know, that my backstab attack does double the damage. I can make an off button for him." </font color=blue>

 

[pIII_Man]

i have heard of some hard drive corruption problems on asus boaards that were patched up with a bios update, you may want to update to the nf7's latest bios...


If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a procesor
110% BX fanboy

 

[ad_rach]

Can I update my v1.0 board with the newest bios or do I have to get the last one that was made before it was changed into nf2 Ultra 400?

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[pIII_Man]

any revision 1.x bios, it will outline it at abits site (i think)


If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a procesor
110% BX fanboy

 

[ad_rach]

Ok.I've updated the bios.All is still working fine but I am still unsure about the hard drive.I read a lot about how silent the barracuda 7200.7s are supposed to be but I am sure the scratchy noises this one makes are louder than the noises my old IBM Deskstar made.I may be being paranoid but I really want to be sure that the drive isn't going to fail on me at some vital moment, especially after my RMA time has run out.With an OEM drive, after your warranty has expired with the vendor, can you go look to the manufacturer for a replacement?

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[SJJM]

Just send it back. Don't take the chance that it is bad, would suck if you wait to long and can not send it back to the store.

<font color=blue>"You know, that my backstab attack does double the damage. I can make an off button for him." </font color=blue>