Seagate to Refund 5% of Hard Drive Prices

[Jimmy 2004]

Following false advertising by Seagate with regards to hard drive capacities, overstating capacities by 7% due to the differences between a gigabyte and a giga binary byte (both of which are commonly abbreviated to 'GB'), the company is now required to reimburse customers with either a 5% cash benefit for drives purchased between 22nd March 2001 and 1st January 2006 or a software benefit in the form of a free copy of Seagate Software Suite for drives purchased between 22nd March 2001 and 26th September 2007. To get the cash benefit customers must visit the settlement website and fill out the mail-in form, and to receive the software benefit customers must fill in an online form. This offer is only applicable to hard drives purchased as a discrete unit and not hard drives in pre-built computers.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[freaksavior]

does this count for maxtor drives as well since seagate own them? i got 2 drives one labeled seagate and one maxtor. the maxtor is a ST3300620ASRK and the seagate is ST3300622ASRK so does it count?

 

[Jimmy 2004]

I doubt that it would work for Maxtor drives - from looking at the mail for the HD number has to start with ST, which I don't think Maxtor drives do.

 

[DaMulta]

free copy of Seagate Software Suite for drives

I can download that for free on their website......So they are finally going to stop saying 500 gigs when we all know that it won't be?

 

[woozers]

Funny

 

[spacejunky]

class action lawsuits are a joke. You will get a few bucks in your pocket and the lawyers get several million.

 

[Pinchy]

As if they dont have a refund for countries other than the US. I got ripped off too!

 

[Jess Stingray]

Crud... for a minute there, I thought I might get something. But it came pre-installed.

 

[Kreij]

I'm going to have to side with Seagate on this one.
They are actually reporting the correct amount space available on the disk using the prefix terminology that everyone uses.

A "Kilo" by definition is "times 1000" or " times 10 to the power of 3". (ie. 1 Kilgram = 1000 grams). Thus a "Giga" is "times 10 to the power of 9".
If you are going to use the term "Kilo by definition, then the notion that 1 Kilobyte = 1024 bytes is technically wrong (as it stems from powers of 2 which the "Kilo" and other notations are not technically defined as, although regularly used).
So 1024 bytes is actually a Kilobyte plus 24 bytes.

An 80GB hard drive technically is "80 X 10 to the power of 9", or 80,000,000,000 bytes.
However, the OS uses the notaion that 1GB = 1024 Mytes, therefore is reporting something less that the actual 80GB (usually something like 74.5GB).

Anyway, I really think Seagate felt it would be cheaper to just settle the dispute and give away some software or a 5% refund.

 

[Pinchy]

Anyway, I really think Seagate felt it would be cheaper to just settle the dispute and give away some software or a 5% refund.

LOL there wouldnt be many people that would bother sending in the form for 5%. If you bought the drive for $50, are you really gonna waste your time for $2.50 ?

 

[Kreij]

LOL there wouldnt be many people that would bother sending in the form for 5%. If you bought the drive for $50, are you really gonna waste your time for $2.50 ?

No, but if you bought 4 drives, that $10 will get you a 6-pack of Guiness Stout and some change

 

[Pinchy]

I still think a lot of people will be too lazy to do it

 

[ktr]

Damn, i bought 3 seagates, but all after Jan 1st of '06...so all i get is damn software.

btw, can some one post the link in where to dl the suite?

 

[TUngsten]

No, but if you bought 4 drives, that $10 will get you a 6-pack of Guiness Stout and some change

Thanks for that motivation! Pints indeed!

 

[Disparia]

No, but if you bought 4 drives, that $10 will get you a 6-pack of Guiness Stout and some change

Also, some of those drives were $250+ for the larger models. I'd do it for 5% of $1000. Unfortunately I bought after Sept 26th...

 

[Disparia]

After reading maybe half of the 168 posts at DailyTech all I can say is, I don't care what the unit is, but everyone needs to get on the same page

Hopefully $250M is enough to get Seagate and others talking with Microsoft, etc...

 

[Steevo]

Or like me. I has bought many drives. So I might do this, no, I won't. I agree that it is stupid to do to Seagate. If peeps are too stupid to do math or understand, mebey they really need the money.

 

[JoJoe]

I'm going to have to side with Seagate on this one.
They are actually reporting the correct amount space available on the disk using the prefix terminology that everyone uses.

A "Kilo" by definition is "times 1000" or " times 10 to the power of 3". (ie. 1 Kilgram = 1000 grams). Thus a "Giga" is "times 10 to the power of 9".
If you are going to use the term "Kilo by definition, then the notion that 1 Kilobyte = 1024 bytes is technically wrong (as it stems from powers of 2 which the "Kilo" and other notations are not technically defined as, although regularly used).
So 1024 bytes is actually a Kilobyte plus 24 bytes.

An 80GB hard drive technically is "80 X 10 to the power of 9", or 80,000,000,000 bytes.
However, the OS uses the notaion that 1GB = 1024 Mytes, therefore is reporting something less that the actual 80GB (usually something like 74.5GB).

Anyway, I really think Seagate felt it would be cheaper to just settle the dispute and give away some software or a 5% refund.

You are completely missing the point.

Seagate says you're getting 80GB knowing full well that what they're telling you is in decimal and what the OS uses is binary.

Is it really that hard to tell the consumer that it's really a 74.5GB harddrive? No. But 80GB looks better than 74.5, and people who don't know any better will pay more for the drive that says 80Gb.

 

[Steevo]

What about the 12% that windows uses for the MFT? When only a few percent is needed most of the time? Should they be sued for that too?

Or how about when a file takes more space onthe disk than it's actual size?

Or the limitations of older motherboards to support anything beyond 127Gb? Buy a card, or a new system, hell no, SUE THEM!!!!



This is stupidity at its best.

 

[Kreij]

You are completely missing the point.

Seagate says you're getting 80GB knowing full well that what they're telling you is in decimal and what the OS uses is binary.

Is it really that hard to tell the consumer that it's really a 74.5GB harddrive? No. But 80GB looks better than 74.5, and people who don't know any better will pay more for the drive that says 80Gb.

Not really ...

The hard drive holds 80GB. Period. If you were to count the number of bytes that will fit on the platters you will find that it is 80,000,000,000.

The fact that the OS calculates a Kilo as " times 1024" instead of "times 1000" does not change the amount of data the hard drive will hold, it just changes the end result of the calculation.

You are getting an 80GB hard drive, not a 74.5BG one.
If it only held 74,500,000,000 bytes the OS would report it even smaller.

 

[Disparia]

You are completely missing the point.

Seagate says you're getting 80GB knowing full well that what they're telling you is in decimal and what the OS uses is binary.

Is it really that hard to tell the consumer that it's really a 74.5GB harddrive? No. But 80GB looks better than 74.5, and people who don't know any better will pay more for the drive that says 80Gb.

Or, is it really that hard for the OS to display GB (correctly) or GiB? It doesn't necessarily have to be Seagate and other drive manufacturers that have to conform.

Like I said before... I don't care which side comes out on top, just as long as everyone will finally agree on it

 

[WarEagleAU]

a 50% refund would have been better, but its something.

Also, I have to agree with Kreij, MS messed everyone up with their binary byte counting.

 

[Jess Stingray]

EVERY HDD manufacturer does this, even OEMs. They put 160GB harddrive, when in reality it's only 129GB.

 

[effmaster]

a 50% refund would have been better, but its something.

Also, I have to agree with Kreij, MS messed everyone up with their binary byte counting.

Other companies that make OS's do this too if im not mistaken (e.g. Apple and Linux) so You cant blame Microsoft solely for this problem

 

[JoJoe]

But the fact of the matter is that the OS does NOT use decimal. It uses binary. The HDD might have 80,000,000,000 decimal, but that doesn't really mean anything if the OS doesn't use decimal.