Hi, I recently bought a Seagate Barracuda 2TB SMR drive (https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B07H2RR55Q?psc=1#). According to the internet and reddit, it is fine for games, however it is ridiculusly slow. My old HDD (HDS721010CLA332) loads file directory file lists nearly instantly and loads my game X-Plane in 13 seconds to main menu. The new drive takes a while just to load the list of files in a directory and doesn't even open X-Plane in 5 minutes. This is absolute crap, but I'm not sure about the Harris Technology Amazon return policy. I'm not sure if I can spin it into an issue under ACL.
Can I Return A Slow Seagate Barracuda SMR Hard Drive?
McOzbargainer on 23/12/2021 - 20:45
Last edited 23/12/2021 - 21:04 by 1 other user
Last edited 23/12/2021 - 21:04 by 1 other user
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Amazon has got a good return policy. Just select whatever option says 'doesn't perform as advertised' or similar.
The refund will occur only once Harris Technioogy gets the product back.
I've returned a lot to Amazon both to their store and 3rd party sellers without issue, even used products that the seller would not accept as return via their bonfire store.
Thanks, I wasn't sure as the Amazon website said they only take change of mind returns if it was sold by Amazon AU and was wondering how to spin it into an issue under ACL.
It’s not a change of mind if it doesn’t work as advertised.
Thanks again, sent it in a few weeks ago and got instant refund.
Ship from Amazon thus you will deal with automated return, just choose not met your expectation as return the return label will be provided automatically. Once they get it you will get your refund. Sometimes you can get advanced refund the soonest AusPost scan the parcel
Run a HDD Speed test. Check it against advertised speeds.
Should help with proof too.Well, that's not right, even 6TB SMR drives work better than that. Yes, they're not fast in a normal operations and very slow when they're close to being full but what you're describing is not normal.
you got bad information. games are being made for top tier ssd so it's little surprise a shitty smr hdd fails to perform.
Both hdd op refers are just standard data HDD. Why not ssd? Hopefully he meants system on ssd the game files in hdd
That's correct. I'm using a NVMe SSD I got on sale (https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/649586) for the OS and the HDD for larger files like games.
ok. that new hdd meant to be faster than your old one - do you do complete replace the old one? same sata cable same motherboard sata slot?
@foxmulder: Nope, installed it in different slot. Shouldn't matter as both are connected Intel Chipset SATA 2. Switched drives around to make sure it wasn't that and it still was just as slow.
Organise a replacement directly with Seagate https://www.seagate.com/au/en/support/warranty-and-replaceme…
You ship it back to them and they ship you a replacement once they receive it. Drives usually get turned around in seven to ten working days.
Just return it straight to Amazon
Shouldn't matter as both are connected Intel Chipset SATA 2
if the drive is a Sata 3 drive (SATA III (previously called SATA 6Gb/s) – SATA's third generation runs at 6Gb/s and has a bandwidth throughput of 600MB/s) connected to a Sata 2 output the Sata 2 controller will slow the drive in 1/2
SATA II (previously called SATA 3Gb/s) – The second generation of the SATA interface ran at 3Gb/s and had a bandwidth throughput of 300MB/s
That's exactly what I said. SATA 2 is fast enough for these drives anyway. SATA I maxes out at 150MB/s and HDD's can't even go over 130 sequential read.
You can try the "fails to perform" argument and see where you go but, it works… So don't expect much.
https://www.ht.com.au/ht/terms_of_use/Returns/5
You could try CrystalDiskMark HDD speed tests and see if it meets listed specs:
If it's within reasonable range then not an ACL issue, you cheaped out on a slow HDD or there's some other issue at play.