Seagate 750 on sale at Best Buy $379

[peterkrogh]

I saw this today in the weekend circular:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7899795&productCategoryId=pcmcat33200050002&type=product&cmp=++&id=1149206371230

External Seagate 750 FW/USB2 external, $379  On sale through Saturday 8/26

This is a great deal on a great backup drive.

Peter

[Steve Fines]

Hello,

This is a "just the way it goes" reply and not meant to be barbed or pointed in any way.

I bought one of these.

I wrote all 0's to it before using it - everything seemed to work fine.

My first big task for it was a set of images I had been needing to copy - about 175gb. I was about 60gb into the copy when the drive started making a progressively louder whining / screeching noise.

It didn't seem as though the screeching was going to get better, so I just shut it down and will return it tomorrow.

Not sure whether I'm going to get another or just get a refund. We'll see.

[peterkrogh]

Steve,
Thanks for the report.  Hopefully an isolated incident, but keep your eyes open for repeated reports about failure in the 750.

Seagate has a good reputation, but that could change over time, and, in any case, nothing protects you from buying the one in xxxxxx that doesn't work.

BTW, reports that a drive is working fine are much less useful than reports that a drive model is not.  Since there will be many more properly working units than defective ones, it's pretty impossible for an individual to properly calculate the importance of failure ratios. 

Gross number of reports about a single unit (like the old LaCie Big Disk 500) *are* more helpful, since it's a bit easier to keep track of repeatedly hearing about the same model failing.  This has to be balanced, however, with the understanding that popular drives will be more plentiful, and therefore - even if more reliable per unit - will generate more reports of failure.

Peter

BTW, the bare version of the drive (750 GB Seagate) is available this week at CompUSA for $279

[eightfish]

Check FRYs - they have the 750 SATA drives for $299 as of Oct 4th, 2006

[Steve Fines]

Hello,

Had some coupons and a sale and what do you know, I ended up with 2 external Seagate 750's.

They've been running for about 2 weeks now - no problems.

Just thought I'd offer this as follow up to my first experience.