An indepth look at Seagate's Hard Drives, Customer Care, and Overall Value
Written: Sep 11 '06 (Updated Oct 06 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent Value, Great Customer Care, 5 Year Warranty
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: High-Capacity drive is an unbeatable value, Seagate Performance & Reliability, backed by a 5 year Full Warranty.
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| DeRango's Full Review: Seagate (ST3200822AS) 200 GB SATA Hard Drive |
Ah yes, the Cadillac of hard drives, Seagate boasts a Full 5 year warranty, silence while using, and award winning DiscWizard software to boot. Well I could not agree with the statements and claims of the manufacture more, as everything I have experience with Seagate hard drives has always reflected this.
The original hard drive with my computer began the tell-tale warnings of a failing system; warnings before booting to back-up data, slower than normal boot up times, failing software programs, and constantly corrupt windows files. Knowing that the Click of Death would soon loom forth in an effort to avoid this I purchased a Seagate hard drive in anticipation of doom. Turns out my inclinations were quickly becoming a reality as my Western Digital began the Click of Death, and the drive is now a paperweight.
In the Box
-Internal Barracuda hard drive
-Interface cable (EIDE)
-DiscWizard installation software
-SeaTools diagnostic software
-Quick installation guide
-Mounting screws (No bracket)
System Requirements
-Microsoft Windows XP, Me, 2000, 98, NT
-May be used with Linux, Apple Mac OS and Netware
-ATA/IDE Interface (Ultra ATA/100 Recommended)
-Open 3.5-inch bay or slot for drive
-48-bit addressing is required to exceed the 137-Gbyte capacity limitation imposed by 28-bit addressing.
Details
Capacity: 200GB
Speed: 7200 rpm
Average Read Time: 8.5ms
Cylinders: 16383
Heads: 16
Sectors: 63
Specifications
Ultra ATA/100 interface
8-Mbyte Cache
350 Gs nonoperating shock resistance
Less than 25 acoustic decibels
Industry-Leading Warranty
Five Year FULL Warranty, Parts & Labor, along with Free Lifetime Tech Support for the life of the drive-even after the expired warranty or ownership change.
200GB is equivalent to approximately
-50 two hour DVD-quality movies
-200 hours of VHS-quality videos
-3400 hours of your favorite songs
-50,000 digital pictures
-& Regular old Crap
Silence is Golden
This particular feature is one of my favorites!
Claiming the world’s quietest, 7,200-RPM drive with the most advanced fluid-bearing motor.
I can vouch for the silence of the hard drive as it is by far the quietest hard drive I have ever used. Not only is it quite while running, but installing & “thinking,” in fact I do not hear much coming from the CPU, just the fan from the power supply. So say so long to grinding, whirling, and “thinking,” because this bad-dog is quite as they come.
Customer Care
Seagate in all honesty does an excellent job of standing behind their products, as previously mentioned a Full 5 Year Warranty backed by lifetime Free Tech Support is an excellent gesture to their customers. Not only is this a great gesture it’s a fantastic value as the support staff from my experience does a wonderful job of fixing the issue, replacing the product if needed, and answering questions via email or phone in a fast professional manor. As for the site navigation, it is easy to obtain customer care numbers, email links, and update news on your make and model of drive. Most hard drives do not require updates except in some cases *Firmware for your motherboard to recognize a larger hard drive. Seagate does an excellent overall job of providing satisfactory customer service on-line & on the phone.
*Firmware: is a combination of software and hardware. Computer chips that have data or programs recorded on them are firmware.
Installation
Hardware Just plugged into the correct EIDE port set my Jumper to Master, turned the computer on, and made sure my Windows XP CD was ready to go. Never had a problem installing a Seagate hard drive, and I’m assuming with the user guide, Disc Wizard software, and tech support your installation should be a breeze.
Software The DiscWizard is a program I highly recommend running before installation as it has makes the process much less painful. The guide included contains FAQ's and Website information where you can get answers to issues and questions fast. I understand why the software was voted "The best setup utility" by PC World, the software is user friendly and easy to follow.
Seagate Statement
For over 25 years, Seagate has been the hard drive of choice for computer manufacturers and discriminating users worldwide. There's no better way to store, protect, and work with all your data.
Agreed
I trust Seagate hard drives & will continue to purchase them because of the overall value, customer care, and product reliability. Every time I get a computer that has a Western Digital Hard Drive that fails, I replace it with a Seagate. I actually have a 4.0 GB Seagate hard drive that is about 12 years old and still manages to function as a back-up hard drive on my CPU for priceless files and information. I personally got a great deal on the drive as it was normally $129.99, I got a $60 instant rebate at best buy, and had a $30 gift card, so my out of pocket expense was about $32. Gotta look for those deals!
Click Of Death
All PC users and Technician are all too familiar with this home branded term. This term is coined from the harsh clicking or buzzing a drive makes in a futile attempt to access data on the drive heads. The clicking is just an audible indication of a drive that is having trouble accessing the data.
Some Personal Hard drive Tips
-Make sure you computer is plugged into a Surge Protector or an APC battery backup unit, as this will minimize the chances of a surge damaging your PC and destroying your data.
-Back up all your important data, pictures, music, and other files on a Writeable Disc or External Source. Face it the old saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is what I’m referring to, unless you have some backup copies your risking losing all that data in one fell swoop.
-Maintain your hard drive using the software provided or windows programs like Disk Defrag or Scandisk, which can be found under your control panel in windows.
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Recommended:
Yes
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