Desktop Computer Review: Seagate ST303204N1A1AS-RK 320GB Internal SATA 16MB Cache Hard Drive Review

My experience with Seagate has been altogether different. I have never had a single failed Seagate drive that I can remember, and my first drive was a really old 20mb MFM unit.

I currently have 7 Seagate hard drives. One is this model, 2 are 250gb SATA drives, 1 is a 146gb 10k SCSI, 2 are 160GB SATA drives and the last is a 40gb PATA drive. All of the SATA drives have been in use for 18 months now without a single problem.

One thing to note about SATA drives and Seagates in particular, is that they are sensitive to cheap power supplies and controllers. On the power supply especially, make sure you use a native SATA power connector and not one of the 4-pin molex to SATA adapters. The adapter is missing a power lead (orange) that is apparently very crucial to the Seagate design. I had thought I had a failing drive for a time and I traced the problem to the 4-pin adapter, which Seagate actually bundles with their retail drive kits. I replaced the power supply in the system with one that has native SATA connectors and the problem went away.

I know there are the occasional bad runs in manufacturing, but Seagate drives carry a full 5 year warranty on them. Our company uses Seagate drives exclusively and we install thousands of them each year. We would not use Seagate on that level of volume if they did not make a quality product.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Seagate ST303204N1A1AS-RK 320GB Internal SATA 16MB Cache Hard Drive

Product Description:
Seagate internal 3.5-inch 7200-RPM hard drives offer the best combination of high-performance, reliability, state-of-the-art features and sophisticated software for multiple applications. The 3.5-inch drive is protected by built-in self-monitoring technology, ensuring data safety and drive performance.