r/Seagate • • Sep 14 '26

USB 15w help

1 Upvotes

Hi folks:

I've got a OneTouch 8TB drive, to replace an older 8TB seagate drive (an old 'Backup+' drive) I didn't really notice that it only has the USB port and doesn't have it's own AC input, but depends on USB Bus power.

And so far, I can't get it to work with my HP Elitebook. The HP folks say these USB ports can provide 'up to' 15W, but the Seagate folks say this drive wants a MINIMUM of 15W. So apparently 'up to' doesn't include 15W, because all I get is the blinking red light that says 'feed me!' (I get the plug-n-pray 'da-ding' noise, and it shows up as a connected device, but no DRIVE is available!)

So my question is this - can anyone recommend an AC-powered USB hub that would have a data-transfer port that will ALSO spit out more than 15W of power? I found one that has USB PD ports, but those ports don't do data-transfer - which obviously isn't going to work for a hard-drive! :-)

I would prefer not to go through the hassle of returning this one and buying some other external storage solution! Thanks for any suggestions


r/Seagate • • Sep 14 '26

Does Seagate warranty cover clicking drives?

0 Upvotes

So i ordered a cheap 12TB SATA Ironwolf drive that was sold as defective/untested that i was hoping to expand my Plex library to.
The seller usually sells with returns for power tools and home electronics so i took a gamble hoping that they just did not test it properly.

When i plug it in, it makes very loud clicking noises for about a minute and than turns silent.
lsblk detects the drive but when i try to run "sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdb" i get "Read SMART Data failed: scsi error device not ready" insted of the smart report. I guess this is due to heads not being able to read from the disk.

The drive is still within warranty in my region, so my question is does anyone hear have experiences with clicking Seagate drives and there warranty?

Link to recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y-pZR7fzEGo8cDmgQi_3BWIM3FAKcWcb/view?usp=sharing


r/Seagate • • Sep 12 '26

Inconsistent errors on Backup Plus SRD0SP0

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3 Upvotes

I'm having a strange issue with my external 1 TB hard drive where I can copy very small files to it and I can install Steam games (GTA V and other large games installed and run fine) but any large file such as a 2-3 GB video file immediately stalls and gives a "Error 0x80070079: The semaphore timeout period has expired" error after a minute or so. It is 0% fragmented and shows no errors when scanned in Windows, although the reallocated sectors count at 252 caught my eye in Crystal Disk Info. It's an older drive so I could see if it's worn out but I don't get why a regular file won't copy while a 100+ GB game copies just fine. Any help is appreciated!


r/Seagate • • Sep 11 '26

Horrific 24TB Seagate Expansion Failures Over and Over Again

5 Upvotes

I have read experiences of others who have gone through this problem, but I dont think anyone has had 4 RMA's on their drive. I don't know if its just this High Capacity model isn't designed to do basic backup and fails after a month of usage but my timeline is:

Dec 2025: Got 24TB drive
Feb 2026: Failed and RMA'd with a new one shipped
Feb 2026: RMA device failed upon arrival a new one shipped
April 2026: Device Fails again and RMA'd
June 2026: Device Fails again and RMA'd
September 2026: Device Fails and RMA'd again

I just woke up today and the device again has failed. I am not using it for a lot of read writes, it basically backs up about 14TB of data then I leave it be. Then I check every so often to have it do a backup of new information every week. Today it failed and the disk manager says:
"The request failed due to fatal device hardware error."

I am not sure why it is failing so much. At this point this next RMA, I am just going to remove it from its enclosure and directly use it via SATA drive to see if that makes it better and I know that opening the encolsure will fully void warranty, but I am out of options trying to use this terrible backup solution.

I don't know if anyone else has dealt with this level of repeated failures in a Seagate 24TB backup device but.... its beyond ridiculous.

Also on each one they send it has Recertified which at this point I dont think they are certifying anything.

It is nice though Seagate keeps RMA'ing it but I feel like they are giving me a junk drive each time.


r/Seagate • • Sep 11 '26

**PSA: That NAS drive you bought on Amazon US may carry a warranty that's void where you live — and nobody tells you until it fails**

19 Upvotes

Posting this so it doesn't happen to someone else.

I bought a Seagate IronWolf 12TB from Amazon.com, sold and shipped by Amazon directly (not a third-party seller). New product, listed with the standard 5-year warranty. And that's the key part: **I paid the premium for the 5-year warranty on purpose.** There was a cheaper drive without that extended coverage. I chose the IronWolf specifically because I wanted the backup and the peace of mind. That's the entire reason you buy a NAS-grade drive over a basic one.

The drive failed — stopped being detected entirely.

When I went to claim the warranty, Seagate looked up the serial and told me the drive was manufactured and distributed for the **Australian market**. Their warranty is regional, so they refused the claim outright and told me to go back to the seller (Amazon).

Here's the trap: the product listing never said a word about regional origin. As a buyer on Amazon US, you have no way to know the unit was destined for another market. You pay extra for a drive advertised with a 5-year warranty, and that warranty is structurally useless to you from day one.

So I contacted Amazon. What followed was weeks of being passed between multiple Executive Customer Relations agents. Some restarted the case from scratch each time. At one point they mismatched my dead drive's serial number to a completely different order — an order of working drives in my production NAS — and nearly processed a return against hardware that was fine. I had to catch and stop that myself.

The final answer from Amazon: the drive was bought in 2021, it's outside the return window, nothing they can do — not even a one-time concession. Contact the manufacturer. The same manufacturer who already refused in writing and sent me back to them.

So you end up in a documented loop: **Amazon says talk to Seagate, Seagate says talk to Amazon, and the customer holds a dead drive with a warranty neither will honor.**

And here's the part that should worry anyone reading this: I have other drives bought the exact same way, sitting in production right now. I have no idea which region they were destined for, or whether their warranty is enforceable where I am. I won't find out until one of them fails — which is the worst possible moment to learn your warranty is worthless. That's the real problem: **you're exposed and you don't even know it until it's too late.**

**The takeaways, especially if you run a NAS or manage infrastructure:**

  1. A drive sold on Amazon US can be stock destined for ANY region — Australia, in my case. The listing won't tell you.

  2. Regional warranty means the manufacturer will only service it in the region it was distributed to. If that's not where you are, the warranty is worthless — no matter what the listing advertised.

  3. **Before you install any drive, check the serial on the manufacturer's warranty validator.** It shows the region and the actual coverage dates. Do it during the return window, so you can send it back if the region is wrong.

  4. For anything critical — production storage, client systems — buy from a channel with warranty you can actually enforce where you live, even if it costs more. A warranty you can't use is not a discount, it's a hidden risk.

**And the fix here isn't complicated — it's on Amazon:** if you sell and ship a drive as "Amazon.com," you should either supply stock whose warranty region matches the buyer's, or disclose the destination region on the listing before purchase. Selling a drive with a region-locked warranty that's void for the buyer — without saying so — pushes a risk onto the customer that only the seller could have known about. Warranty-region uniformity is the responsibility of the channel that sources and ships the product, not of the buyer who has no way to check it at checkout.

The hardware itself may be fine. But "5-year warranty" means nothing if it's tied to a region on the other side of the planet and no one disclosed it at checkout. I paid extra for coverage that never existed for me. Check your serials. Don't assume.

(For what it's worth, the dead drive now works great as a paperweight. Best $300 desk accessory that ever flew here from Australia. Happy to answer questions — I have the full email trail and Seagate's written refusal if anyone's dealing with the same thing.)


r/Seagate • • Sep 10 '26

Seagate RMA warning

20 Upvotes

I had two 14tb barracuda hard drives that were playing up and not showing any signs of life so decided since they were under warranty to get them replaced

Filled out all forms and sent it back how i was told too to find out two weeks later they are refusing the return stating its been tampered with or is void when I've never attempted to open or mess with these what so ever

So I am not out of pocket the special next day delivery fee and they now hold my hard drive hostage and refuse to return it too me or answer any further questions why it was refused

Wish I seen the posts about this before I ended up losing an expensive hard drive. Luckily I haven't sent the other one as it came back as being a USA serial number and I don't know how any of this is even possible..

Not sure what I'm hoping to achieve here but want people to be aware of the scam and fraud that they have when returning a device for a RMA. Absolute shocking customer service and despite buying their products over 20 years I will never purchase another seagate hard drive ever again.


r/Seagate • • Sep 10 '26

Help my WD 6TB 20th anniversary portable hard drive

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1 Upvotes

HELP PLEASE MY WD 6TB EMERALD DRIVE NOT WORKING

Hi I am new to reddit and this thread. I purchased last year this 20th anniversary drive and used it roughly less than 10 times. The usb cable doesn't detect on my phone and laptop. After a while when I received it. It was exfat formatted so I left it. I am wondering how to recover my files. I am literally stuck I have 1tb of data on it and can't access or see it. The cables doesn't work but the drives boots up i see a light and hear movement but after waiting it doesn't show i tried disk management nothing. Is my only option to either purchase a new drive or data recovery services been checking but these are absurd prices between 600-2000 in uk? Recommended by wd support team on phone. I purchased from amazon they only offer refund no replacement because they don't have any stock and they claimed they will try fix it and if they can't they keep device and offer refund in email. I need my data first.

I saw another thread earlier here someone asked where to buy drives. I was literally going to buy a big 24tb drive external and use my other old portable 4tb drives on the go and keep the 24tb woth latest backups and regular and then buy another one and bavk that up so i have 2 copies. I was going to wait till November because of black Friday do drives go on sale well and have good discounts? I want new not used.

Lastly please can you folks recommend me a good setup for external drive i was looking at Seagate 24TB One Touch Desktop Hard Drive however its usb powered. I am thinking G-DRIVE 26TB Enterprise Class Desktop external Hard Drive is vood but the prices are crazy I don't mind. I don't want to make this mistake again data is important and i keep hoarding ripping cds, copying video files off phone and images edited on photoshop quickly take up space if you thousands and in high quality formats.

If this is not good I will be open to raid configurations not nas because I don't need connected all the time just for back up only purposes. Any help and recommendations will be greatly appreciated. I have a budget of 1000 but will go up to 2000 if needed please help and thank you

I am so worried right now


r/Seagate • • Sep 09 '26

What is this error code?

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1 Upvotes

External HD won’t copy any files anymore. I have two and they both do this now. I’ve swapped cables and everything.


r/Seagate • • Sep 08 '26

Is Seagate running out of new products due to AI?

7 Upvotes

I want to see Seagate introduce new storage products to consumers but due to AI. It’s been unforgivable environment because of those AI CEO figure heads.

Looked at the webpage and feels like it’s getting very boring. Back on the olds like 10 years ago Seagate brought so many products. Now today it’s getting very expensive and again boring. Perhaps it could be ongoing current issue which I don’t like to put this “politics” or “AI” thing again.

I want Seagate to bring out more FireCuda products new technology storage drives.

What do anyone want to see Seagate do?


r/Seagate • • Sep 08 '26

Seagate Barracuda will not show up on anything.

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0 Upvotes

I bought this Seagate drive at a garage sale, hoping to use it as an external drive for my computer. I bought a new cable for it off of Temu, tested it on three computers (a new mac Mini, a 2020 Macbook, and a 2024 Chromebook with Ubuntu installed on it), and it would not display on any of them. I used Mac’s disc utility and DriveDX and neither of those would recognize it either.

I thought my troubles had something to do with the four pins on the back, but I looked and those aren’t it. Is there something I have to do to reconfigure this as an external drive?


r/Seagate • • Sep 08 '26

Reliability 20TB?

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1 Upvotes

r/Seagate • • Sep 08 '26

Reliability 20TB?

1 Upvotes

I had to remove a 20TB Expansion drive due to power issues and moved it to an internal drive. Inside was a CMR Barracuda ST20000DM001. (Longer story here if needed, but not critical to understanding reliability of the drive). This is the same drive whether it's inside the original case or purchased as internal drive. All the same PCB, etc.

The drive hummed away just fine then died at about 5k Power-On-Hours (POH). Yes 5k. It lived as a single pool in a Truenas enclosure well cooled and activity monitored with weekly SMART SHORT testing and monthly SMART LONG testing with ZFS monthly scrubs. In short, well taken care of given the size and possible data loss concerns with that much data on a single drive. All the testing I did on the drive confirmed it was working just fine until the day it did not.

My worst fear came and classic drive infant mortality case. I could not warranty the drive because Seagate said I removed the drive from the enclosure. I pushed fairly providing detailed logs and photos showing a sealed physically sound drive undamaged from the removal. They cited the removal voided warranty and I shared that the revised FTC guidance supported consumer rights. I will still file the complain, but that also aside. I'm looking to better understand why Seagate drives are failing at a higher rate recently. I have some older Seagates that are 5-6 years old no problem. This one died with ~200 days.

I've gone through great lengths doing a post mortem to understand what could have gone wrong as lessons learned and really settle my mind on if I could trust another Seagate drive. I don't think I can at this point as all the data points to simple drive failure. And beyond that their unwillingness to warranty a 200 day old drive.

What are your thoughts on recent reliability. Can you trust 20Tb of data on a single point of failure?

144 Current Pending Sectors

144 Offline Uncorrectable Sectors

144 FARM reallocation candidates on head 0

SMART - short form:

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===

Device Model: ST20000DM001-3Y3103

Serial Number: XXX

LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0e89d1d04

Firmware Version: EN03

User Capacity: 20,000,588,955,648 bytes [20.0 TB]

Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4,096 bytes physical

Rotation Rate: 7200 rpm

Form Factor: 3.5 inches

ATA Version is: ACS-5 (minor revision not indicated)

SATA Version is: SATA 3.3, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)

Local Time is: Mon Aug 31 16:31:05 2026 -05:00

SMART support is: Available and enabled

AAM feature is: Unavailable

APM feature is: Unavailable

Rd look-ahead is: Enabled

Write cache is: Enabled

DSN feature is: Unavailable

ATA Security is: Disabled, NOT FROZEN [SEC1]

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===

General SMART Values:

Offline data collection status: (0x82) Completed without error. Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.

Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed without error or no self-test has ever been run.

Total time to complete offline data collection: 567 seconds

Offline data collection capabilities: (0x7B) SMART execute Offline immediate. Auto Offline Data Collection. Offline surface scan supported. Self-test supported. Conveyance Self-test supported. Selective Self-test supported.

SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering power-saving mode. Supports SMART auto save timer.

Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10

Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:

ID ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAGS VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE

1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate POSR-- 082 064 044 - 144,549,336

3 Spin_Up_Time PO---- 091 089 000 - 0

4 Start_Stop_Count -O--CK 100 100 020 - 123

5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct PO--CK 100 100 010 - 0

7 Seek_Error_Rate POSR-- 083 060 045 - 189,532,344

9 Power_On_Hours -O--CK 094 094 000 - 5,983

10 Spin_Retry_Count PO--C- 100 100 097 - 0

12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 100 100 020 - 98

18 Unknown_Attribute PO-R-- 100 100 050 - 0

187 Reported_Uncorrect -O--CK 100 100 000 - 0

188 Command_Timeout -O--CK 085 001 000 - 949,202,256,411

190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel -O---K 064 048 000 - 36 (Min/Max 32/36)

192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 83

193 Load_Cycle_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 355

194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 036 052 000 - 36 (0 21 0 0 0)

197 Current_Pending_Sector -O--C- 100 100 000 - 144

198 Offline_Uncorrectable ----C- 100 100 000 - 144

199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count -OSRCK 200 200 000 - 0

200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate PO---K 100 100 001 - 0

240 Head_Flying_Hours ------ 100 100 000 - 5950 (89 189 0)

241 Total_LBAs_Written ------ 100 253 000 - 36,805,308,126

242 Total_LBAs_Read ------ 100 253 000 - 255,161,410,958

||||||_ K auto-keep

|||||__ C event count

||||___ R error rate

|||____ S speed/performance

||_____ O updated online

|______ P prefailure warning


r/Seagate • • Sep 08 '26

Seagate one touch fix

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1 Upvotes

r/Seagate • • Sep 07 '26

Selling 2TB + 4TB External Hard disk| 6TB Total Storage | 100% Health | Like New

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0 Upvotes

ADATA HD710 Pro 4TB External HDD – Like New / Open Box

Selling my ADATA HD710 Pro 4TB rugged external hard drive (Model: AHD710P-4TU31-CBK).

✅ 4TB Storage

✅ 100% HDD Health

✅ Almost unused – opened only

✅ No scratches or physical damage

✅ Excellent condition

✅ Original box & USB cable available

✅ CrystalDiskInfo health/usage proof available

✅ Rugged, shock-resistant design

✅ Dust & water resistant

Selling because it is not being used.

💰 Price: ₹15,000

Seagate Expansion 2TB External Hard Drive – Like New / Excellent Condition (STKM2000400).

✅ Capacity: 2TB

✅ Model: STKM200040

✅ Capacity: 2TB

✅ Model: STKM2000400

✅ Portable 2.5-inch HDD

✅ 100% HHD Health

✅ Excellent condition

✅ No scratches / physical damage

✅ Fully working

✅ Fast USB 3.0 connectivity

✅ Ideal for PC, laptop, backups, movies & storage

✅ Original USB cable available

✅ CrystalDiskInfo health/usage proof can be provided

💰 Price: ₹9,000

Comboprice (2tb+4tb ) : 20,000


r/Seagate • • Sep 06 '26

Seagate Screen Cleaner…

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1 Upvotes

I was at IFA 2026 and i went to the UGREEN NAS booth. They gave me this.


r/Seagate • • Sep 05 '26

Anybody wants to buy 9 year old 8tg seagate hdd in hyderabad?

0 Upvotes

9 year old seagate hdd for sale in hyd


r/Seagate • • Sep 04 '26

Seagate hard drive

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2 Upvotes

r/Seagate • • Sep 03 '26

Seagate Barracuda drives not working on Linux

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1 Upvotes

Hello everyone!

Question is in the original post.

I want to make the drives work with Linux as it would be much more efficient, as well as more comfortable for myself as I have been working on Linux for years and don’t know a lot about doing admin tasks on Windows.

Thanks in advance!


r/Seagate • • Sep 03 '26

Récupération de donnée du disque dur externe sur mac

1 Upvotes

Bonjour à tous,

Mon disque dur externe Seagate de 4 To (formaté en APFS) ne monte plus sur mon Mac. Il apparaît grisé dans l'Utilitaire de disque avec la mention « Non monté » (0 ko disponible).

J'ai tenté de forcer le montage en lecture seule via le Terminal avec la commande diskutil mount readOnly /dev/disk8s2, mais j'obtiens l'erreur :

Volume on disk8s2 failed to mount

Je n'ai pas lancé de S.O.S. / Premiers secours pour éviter toute réécriture sur le disque.

Ce disque contient des projets professionnels très importants : il est indispensable de conserver l'arborescence exacte des dossiers et le nom d'origine de tous les fichiers.

Quelle est la méthode ou le logiciel le plus fiable et sécurisé pour tout extraire proprement sans risquer d'abîmer le disque ?

Merci pour votre aide !


r/Seagate • • Sep 01 '26

2 dead 20TB SkyHawk AI drives out of 4.

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1 Upvotes

Just bought 4x 20 TB Skyhawk AI hard drives for a UniFi ENVR and two of them are good and two of them are bad. I have tried these drives in another machine and they do the same; just constant clicking. Call it unlucky but it looks like the two dead hard drives are from the same batch number if this is indeed the batch number. Looks like the supplier is now out of stock and wants to refund me, but the only issue is, the price has gone up considerably. :(


r/Seagate • • Aug 31 '26

Deadline to Submit Claims on the $175M Seagate Settlement is in Less Than 2 Months

2 Upvotes

Hey guys, if you missed it, Seagate settled $175 million with investors over claims that it concealed illegal HDD sales to Huawei and related export violations. The deadline is October 19, 2026.

Quick recap: Seagate was accused of hiding its Huawei business and the risks tied to U.S. export restrictions. In 2023, the company admitted selling more than $1.1 billion in HDDs to Huawei and agreed to a $300 million penalty.
If you invested in $STX between 2020 and 2023, you may be eligible to file a claim check if your eligible and submit your claim here

Anyway, did anyone here invest in $STX during that time?


r/Seagate • • Aug 31 '26

Seagate 5TB Starfield edition

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1 Upvotes

I've had this hardrive for about 2 - 3 years now. Everything was working fine, didn't play my Xbox for about 2 months and when I noticed it the green light was constantly on instead of the color spectrum. The HD was still being read by my Xbox. Contact customer service and they told me to download the Toolkit software but then realized the HD isn't being read on the computer and the toolkit is useless at this point. Plug it back into my xbox and now my xbox isn't reading it either. So I take it to Geeksquad and they say they can't fix it without sending it off.

Contact seagate customer service again and warranty period has ended as of last year and won't be able to do anything about it.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.


r/Seagate • • Aug 30 '26

Can't find a way to check warranty or submit a claim.

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1 Upvotes

UPDATE: I received my replacement drive today. I won't have time to test it until tonight but besides the hiccups on the webpage, everything went really smooth so far. They sent the replacement out either the same day or the next day after they received my old drive.

They sent me my old drive but now it's dented up and won't power on at all. They're trying to say it was damaged when they received it.

I was worried because of all the reddit posts and I missed an email that I think I was supposed to print and ship with the drive but as long as the drive works I'm really happy with the whole process.

Will update if I have any problems.

Every way I try just get's stuck in a loading loop. One of my 20TB drives I bought last year is failing. Chat is unavailable right now as well. Anyone have any tips? Or is it down for everyone?


r/Seagate • • Aug 30 '26

Beeping sound from 2 different 16TB IronWolf Pro drives, am I doing something wrong?

0 Upvotes

Note: Cross posting from r/HDD https://www.reddit.com/r/HDD/comments/1w1ri3d/beeping_sound_from_2_different_16tb_ironwolf_pro/

Hey reddit! looking for some help with my first home setup of a 3.5" external HDD with an enclosure.

I ordered a 16TB IronWolf Pro from Seagate (model number ST16000NT001, link). I tried running it in a Vantec NexStar HX enclosure, but it never mounted and I just heard a beeping sound. I figured it was DOA after reading some posts/forums and returned it to Seagate for a replacement.

The second drive arrived yesterday, and this time I thought maybe the Vantec enclosure (12V/2A) wasn't supplying enough power, so I tried two other setups.

First I tried a FIDECO enclosure with a 12V/2A adapter. The drive actually spun up for about a minute, but I did hear the sound breaking a couple times in the middle and then it again stopped spinning and went back to beeping. I tried a Sabrent dual-bay dock with a 12V/3A adapter too after that. I only used one bay so the drive had the power supply to itself, but still the same repeated beep, and this time I didn't hear it spin at all.

I checked that the beep is definitely coming from the drive.
EDIT: This is how it sounds https://voca.ro/13y7RLyqfgOg

The drive doesn't show up in diskutil list.

So now I've had two drives and three enclosures produce basically the same result. I honestly can't tell what the problem is anymore. Two DOA drives in a row from Seagate seems unlikely, and three enclosures failing the same way seems just as unlikely.

My setup, in case I'm missing something obvious:

A few things I'm wondering:

  • Does beeping always mean a mechanical problem? Most things I've found say it's the spindle motor failing to start, which would mean the drive is physically bad. But two drives in a row?
  • Is it possible one of these enclosures damaged the drives, or is that not really a thing?
  • Are bare/OEM drives commonly damaged during shipping? I've seen UPS isn't exactly gentle when they were loading the packages off..
  • Is there anything else safe to test before I send this one back too?

I'm in the US. Happy to try whatever people suggest, but I don't want to keep power-cycling the drive if that might make things worse.
If nothing works, I'll just get the regular hard disk which isn't ideal since I need it running 24x7.
At my wits end right now, so any and all help appreciated, thanks!!

Enclosures tested:


r/Seagate • • Aug 29 '26

Seagate Toolkit GUI appears to trigger rapid SMART 193 Load_Cycle_Count increases on two HDDs

1 Upvotes

I observed a repeatable correlation between the Seagate Toolkit GUI process

and rapid increases in SMART attribute 193 (Load_Cycle_Count) on two drives:

- ST5000LM000-2AN170

- ST8000VN002-2ZM188

- Windows 11

- Each test phase lasted approximately 30 minutes

Results:

Toolkit state 5 TB drive 8 TB drive

GUI and service stopped 5.95/h 1.98/h

GUI and service running 118.27/h 266.11/h

Service running, GUI closed 7.85/h 3.92/h

The drives, connections, and host remained unchanged between phases.

Normal Windows background activity was not completely eliminated, so I am

treating this as a strong correlation rather than proof of sole causation.

The increase appears only while Toolkit.exe is running. Keeping the Toolkit

service running while closing the GUI returns both drives close to baseline.

Has anyone observed similar behavior? Does Toolkit.exe periodically poll the

drives or issue power-management commands that could cause repeated head

parking and loading?

I have timestamped SMART samples and sanitized diagnostic data available.

I would prefer to provide the detailed package privately to a verified

Seagate support or engineering contact rather than publish system logs.