This is about a six month old 80gb Seagate Barracuda Hard disk that
failed and I asked here for suggestions about recovering the data.
This hard disk is a 'Product of China' as indicated on the label. I
bought an exactly same hard disk with the idea of swapping the circuit
board to see whether it will work.
Ok, once I had this new one I removed the circuit board of the Chinese
Seagate HDD and I was surprised to see that the contact surfaces were
all tarnished and the circuit board itself was not having that healthy
finish (I handle a lot of printed circuit boards in my work).
I am sure that the Chinese disk was not a fake - I got an rma number
for the hard disk from Seagate though I did not send back the disk.
By contrast the new one which was made in Thailand was having a very
good finish. But the swapping did not work and I believe that the
fault is inside the casing and considering the condition of the
Chinese Circuit board I can imagine what could be the condition
inside. And no hope of recovery, I assume.
I use to swear by Seagate and I have never ever used a disk made by
another manufacturer. My faith in Seagate is gone.
I think one should be careful not to buy Seagate - especially China
products - I presume there is something lacking in inspection of goods
the China wing of Seagate produce.
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage ClueLess <clueless@wilderness.org.invalid> wrote:
> This is about a six month old 80gb Seagate Barracuda Hard disk that
> failed and I asked here for suggestions about recovering the data.
> This hard disk is a 'Product of China' as indicated on the label. I
> bought an exactly same hard disk with the idea of swapping the circuit
> board to see whether it will work.
> Ok, once I had this new one I removed the circuit board of the Chinese
> Seagate HDD and I was surprised to see that the contact surfaces were
> all tarnished and the circuit board itself was not having that healthy
> finish (I handle a lot of printed circuit boards in my work).
Well, I guess "China" does not cut it. I already have two ES
(enterprise Storage) Seagates made in china, that failed. For
the time being I would advise anybody to only buy Seagate if
you can be sure, the drives you get are not made in China.
> I am sure that the Chinese disk was not a fake - I got an rma number
> for the hard disk from Seagate though I did not send back the disk.
No. Just some colossal management screwup, likely driven by corporate
greed.
> By contrast the new one which was made in Thailand was having a very
> good finish. But the swapping did not work and I believe that the
> fault is inside the casing and considering the condition of the
> Chinese Circuit board I can imagine what could be the condition
> inside. And no hope of recovery, I assume.
> I use to swear by Seagate and I have never ever used a disk made by
> another manufacturer. My faith in Seagate is gone.
Same here. Why they ever let this trash leave their factories
is beyond me.
> I think one should be careful not to buy Seagate - especially China
> products - I presume there is something lacking in inspection of goods
> the China wing of Seagate produce.
I had one deliverd with a smashed crystal oscillator. The oscillator
was smashed before packaging, as there were no fragmends inside the
ESD bag. My guess would be that these crestins were trying to
reduce the ''failure'' rate. The sad thing is that Seagate did
not even answer my RMA request. I guess they do not need me as a
customer.
Hard disk salvaging - some more 
Linear Mode
