Seagate 5400.3 Dead, Apple OEM, a few months old Options

[lepetitmartien]

I've just finished to (try to) check a Seagate 5400.3 160 GB hard drive that was installed by Apple in the Macbook C2D Black last model as a replacement for the "old" one that had issues (as I've not met this first disk, I won't comment). Seemingly, the heads must have crashed somehow and he can't be formated seriously, there's dead blocks etc.

As it died after only a few months, here are his nicknames, in case you have one of its little bro…

model ST9160821AS
SN 5RN09FZP
date 08142

Watch out!

[lepetitmartien]

If I've understood rightly the way the date is computed, it's been manufactured the first of october 2007, but it's been put to use only a year later.

In case you wonder, how is the date calculated?

format YYWWD or YYWD

Year is the fiscal year starting first of july of YY-1
Week is the week counted from first of july.
Day is counted from start of the week, saturday is 1

As you can see, it's been invented by a mad accountant wedded with a lawyer…

There's a calculator around but it's for Windows…

[lepetitmartien]

Note that I've met another Seagate 5400.3 (the model differs but it's the same family) that died the same way (if not even more perversely). It can be formated (with writing zeros) but you can't install a system, there's an error after a while when you try to.

Plus, one time you can format it, the other you can't… If you make two partitions, the frist will behave bad (just the BSD jaw cracker name as with the bad format episode) the second is fine. It gives an hint the dead zone is somewhere near the start of the drive (in the first GB).

It has been replaced after warranty by Apple for free after a call at Applecare, giving model, describing issue and asking for a Customer Satisfaction number.

The drive I was talking about before is still in its computer, as the CS trick wasn't known and the repair shop we were sent on by Apple did not find a problem whatsoever (well, I bet they did not look). The Macbook was up and running until some days before, but impossible to make Time Mahcine back ups in the last month. The friend tried to copy some GB of video on the drive and it crashed badly. I've verified it was not a directory issue, recovered the accounts etc. (I won't go into details sorry, it took hours and has been rather acrobatic). We were saved by the old Time Machine back up (for the account) and DataRescue for the last files as other means went to dead ends, either not working, or giving errors after a while, or crashing the utility into a loop)

I've tried to format the drive (with zero writing) but it aborted after about 20% of the drive is done.

1+1=2

The system+apps+files was about 19 GB, which is roughly 1/6th of the drive, Time Machine goes down after a while… The format with zeroes exits at about 20% so 24 GB, it must be the zone where the drive is damaged, and it's coherent with TM and the video copy disaster.

So for now, the drive is still (ooch, don't try this at home!!!) in the Macbook, awaiting the owner to call Applecare for the CS (he was going on holiday, but had to work a little still). With a new system, import from the Time Capsule for the state a month ago and the recent files rescued. A new Time Machine back up was done, and went smoothly so TM will be up to date in case. But the drive is dead and if there's no CS, it'll have a brand new drive next week. So it's only for a few day, for someone working on little files with a good back up and while on holiday a daily routine of backup in case it goes bad (USB key, plus backup on the Net).

I hope it's clear enough, and with some hints to diagnose a strange behaving hard drive.