Arno Wagner wrote:
>
> Previously Tony wrote:
> > I have gotten 5 drives and 4 of them failed within an hour. Yes, the
> > warranty replacements gotten directly from Seagate failed just like the
> > orginal 2 new ones purchased from an online retailer. One of the original
> > warranty replacements is still working, though I'm not really using it yet
> > other than loading Windows and testing configs. The model is ST3320613AS.
> > Has anyone the inside scoop on what the problem with these drives is/are and
> > whether or not it affects all 7200.11 drives or just the 320 GB model?
>
> > (Aside: I bought the original 2 drives for a desktop RAID 0 setup but
> > there's no way I'd use these drives in anything less than a RAID 1 setup now
> > because of their proven unreliability).
>
> > Tony
>
> It seems that when Segate started manufacuring ih China, their
> quality went to hell. Currently Seagate has a clear "stay away"
> attached. It seems Samsung and Hitachi are currently the
> way to go. That may aof course change at any time.
>
> Arno

Within the past 6-10 months I read somewhere - possibly in this NG - where
several persons had new Seagates die. The commonalities were Seagate and
country of manufacture (Thailand). I remember the incident because at that time
I was shopping for two, multi-hundred GB drives. I went with Hitachi SATA.

I don't buy Chinese when the item must last. In general Chinese process control
sucks; there are enough bad Chinese lines to blight the reputations of any that
are good.