Seagate Freeagent Drive died on me ... need advice!!

Hi folks ...
well... as the title indicates... my seagate freeagent external hard drive died on me last night ... it's emitting a low purring sound whenever the power chord is connected to it.. and the hard drive is failing to be read by any computer ...
i called seagate up .. and they'll be sending me a replacement (really nice customer service i might add... no hassles... no harrassment... )... ahmm.. however.. i have a problem now ...
the hard disk contains some important personal info that i wouldnt want in anyone elses hands... i do have to send my defective hard drive back ... and this is putting me in a spot ... i have no idea of how seagate will be dismantling my dead external drive and what will happen to the information stored on it ...
any ideas on what i can do to purge the data? or anything of that sort?

 

try using a strong magnet to destroy the data. hehehe

 

I'd call up Seagate again and ask them what they're going to do about your old data before worrying about it myself. But yeah, if all else fails, go for the magnet XD

 

apparently i don't need to fret over it too much ... it seems they'll be doing a low level format on my disk before running any diagnostics on it .. and then will do whatever they do with dead disks...
i have to say ... i was mighty impressed with seagate customer care... very fast ... efficient and no hassles whatsoever...
and what more.. for my troubles... they've fast tracked shipping so that i get my new replacement drive by tommorrow .. free of charge... neat...

 

So many companies could learn a lesson or two from this.

 

thats nice. i might go for seagate if my hdd crashes.
wonder how hitachi handles those.... hmm.

 

OK, that's it. No more shopping around, I'm getting a Freeagent...

 

I had bought a seagate (internal) HDD a year ago (my 4th seagate HDD, all in external enclosures). It was just sitting in the box. About a month ago, I put it in an external enclosure. It ran fine for a couple of days, then crashed.
I went to seagate's site, went to warranty manager, put in my serial # etc, and immediately (and automatically) got an RMA. Sent in the drive (had to pay shipping myself ~$8 fedex). They sent me a replacement drive within a week, and now its running happily in the external enclosure.

 

How long did you have your Seagate? I was reading the reviews on Newegg, and the general concept (among the low-rating reviews) was that if the drive fails, it fails early in its life. I ask because I have two of them and do not look forward to any dead drives.

Also, I think a big magnet wouldn't really phase the hard drive... Have you ever played with a magnet from inside a hard drive?

 

it's been 6 months ... i'm not exactly sure the drive failed.... i think it's more like the drive is not getting power ... but.. hmm... either way ... it's getting replaced... 5 yrs of warranty ... tht's wht i love about seagate!

i guess what's making this easier for me is that i have a backup of the data that was stored in the external (which itsef was used partly as backup! ) ...

touch wood... this is actually only my first electronic item to have conked ...right from having gotten a sharp laptop in 1991 to the recent aquisition of a macbook pro . touch wood!

 

Dont seagate external ensembles only have a warranty of 1 year ?

 

nope .... 5 yrs it is... i remember at the time of buying it .. and yesterday as well .. the customer care rep told me that i had my warranty till sometime in 2012 .. ! ..so hmm.... i guess tht's pretty darn good ...