Defective (clicking) Seagate Expansion 2 TB External Hard Drive

This is my new Seagate Expansion 2 TB external hard drive, which seems to be defective. I'm uploading this here to hopefully help Seagate RMA people to understand what's wrong, but also as a warning to people considering buying one of these drives.

The sound it's making in the clip is very intermittent, sometimes it will run for hours completely fine, other times it will just keep making the noise constantly with not even a half-second gap between each click. It'll just keep making the noise continually until I stop trying to do anything with it.

While it's making the noise, it seems to still work, but read/write speeds slow down to almost 0.

But even when it's completely idle, if I try to shut down Windows, my computer gets stuck at "shutting down" and will just sit like that indefinitely until I unplug the drive... after which my computer immediately shuts down.

This isn't the first time I've heard of Seagate drives having serious problems like this, but I thought by now they would've solved the problem. I just bought the drive a couple weeks ago (June 2010 sometime)... but apparently the problem still exists.

This is a well-known issue and the problem is being reported everywhere. I gave Seagate the benefit of the doubt since I've bought 3 other external drives from them and been very satisfied with their performance.

Seagate is very aware of the problem but they continue to sell the drives. See a huge thread on their support forum here:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Other-External-products/Seagate-Expansions-produ...

The link mentioned in the video for switching from AHCI to IDE is here: http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/271218-switch-ahci-ide-tutorial-ho...

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Seagate
• Defective
• Clicking
• FIX

[caydr]

October 20, 2010! FINALLY A SOLUTION!!!! See my video annotation for details!

[caydr]

Just replaced my cable with one from a high-quality reputable manufacturer. It's only a 3-foot cable so length definitely isn't a problem, and it has a ferrite core. Drive is still clicking as bad as ever.

My research tells me that the drive inside the enclosure is probably OK but the USB interface or drive controller chipset inside is of low quality. This would explain why a better cable helps some people. Still defective. It's no coincidence they're discounted everywhere. I'll RMA.

[ashahry081085]

I change my usb cable with the ferrite choke IT WORKS!!!

[caydr]

@ashahry081085 For you maybe. And for how long? In the Seagate forum thread people report replacing the cable and everything being fine for a few days and then the problem returns.

I'd take this chance to copy everything off and try an RMA if I were you.

[mvurbdy007]

I'm sorry to say that the clicking started today. After 2 days with no clicks I thought the problem is sorted out but I was wrong. The problem with these drives seems to be more serious. Today I'm going to take it back and I will not buy any more products from seagate. the old hard disk I have from seagate runs very well but this one is defective it seems all new ones are(according to the user reviews). My last word to all of the readers don't buy this product.

[caydr]

@mvurbdy007 Same here, I have a Seagate external 500, 750 and 1500, all good drives. But apparently now they've switched over to some lowest-bidder Chinese manufacturer.

It's a pity, because most people with a guts to take the enclosure apart (void warranty) say the drive itself is perfectly fine, but Seagate just HAD to save an extra 3 cents and go with a bad controller chipset or w/e.

Reminds me of the problem affecting their entire 7200.11 line. They've got to clean up their act, fast.

[aboodankaboot]

@aboodankaboot ..issue. After a few months. The click of death came back. Again I turned off the drive and unplugged it. Then turned it upside down and gave it a little shake (not too rough). Turned back on click of death still there. Felt disappointed. Again, turned off and unplugged, shook, turned back on, and NO MORE clicking. It seems like a temporary solution but it also seems to work. I had already contacted Seagate support on twitter and they person said I could return it if defect.

[aboodankaboot]

Guys, this may seems like a crazy solution but.. When mine, just like the one in the video, except it's 1 TB, started to make the click of death I was alerted. At that time I did not know that this was a bad symptom but my gut told me it was. Anyway, what I did was, I was trying to look at the serial number from below. After turning it off and uplugging, I flipped it upside down to look. I was pleasantly surprised that flipping the drive and giving it a little shake while TURNED OFF solved the..

[diogobarretomartins]

Thanks a bunch, I went all the way and changed it to a better case. Now all works perfectly!

[farnzy2011]

My 1.5 tb drive does the exact same thing and it's so bad I can't even watch a movie on it, I contacted seagate and they told me to run sea tools for windows do I did ant it said all was fine but the drive still clicked and because sea tools said it was fine they wouldn't replace it. Does anybody know of a fix for this problem? I can hear the stupid thing clicking now.

[ronald61063]

I think I found the problem.... The power source is 12V 2A and of chinese make. Took another power source and my drive is now working without problems. Power source MUST be 12V -- 2A DC minimum. DO NOT try to supply it with 12V AC power because it will probably destroy the PCB inside the hard drive casing.

[totizedger]

Im using an expansion as in the video mine looks identical

[totizedger]

My 1,5 TB drive started doing tick tock noises but first it did a ticking noise just every 5 minutes then it does it much more often it was an expensive HDD which is why i raged when hearing that noise :( can someone suggest a really cheap and stable HDD for me please

[xponen]

@BillInDenmark I have NEW computer and still get strange noise HDD. They never fixed it... The problem still there.

[xponen]

I have Seagate's Internal HDD for 3 month now (now computer)... and it started to have strange noise while idling. Now since I've read that everyone else had HDD problem: then SEAGATE SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -I never choose Seagate but they still get profit from OEM... ffffuuu Seagate.

[GillbotRebirth]

Must have been Dropped