The faulty drives are all Seagate 2.5″ drives that are manufactured in China, with a Firmware revision of 7.01. They are also all SATA interface. No other drives seem (at this stage) to be affected.

We are receiving quantities of these drives for recovery, and nearly all display the same cause of failure. The read/write heads appear to fail mechanically, quickly causing deep scratches to the platter surface, and rendering the drives practically unrecoverable.

Should you have one of these drives in your system, we believe the problem is serious enough to warrant copying all your data off the drive and replacing it with an alternative drive, or a retail-version Seagate drive.

We at Retrodata believe that any sizeable manufacturer would by this stage be aware of such a problem and issue a product recall notice, or an offer to have the drive exchanged for a suitable alternative at their own expense.

Written by bardissi on October 30th, 2007 with no comments.
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Trend Micro Product End-of-Life Announcement: Standalone Anti-Spyware for SMB 3.x

Trend Micro has made a decision to discontinue the standalone version of Anti-Spyware for SMB 3.x effective October 31, 2007. Please review and refer to the helpful information below to assist you in informing your customers.

Â·Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Product: Standalone Anti-Spyware for SMBÂ·Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Version: 3.xÂ·Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Form Factor: SoftwareÂ·Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Target Audience: Small and Medium Business Customers Â·Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Reasons for End-of-Life Announcement: oÂ Â Â Lack of demand for a stand-alone anti-spyware solutionoÂ Â Â Overwhelming preference for an all-in-one solution Â·Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Important Dates: oÂ Â Â October 31, 2007: New and renewal SKUs will no longer be available; standalone Anti-Spyware for SMB 3.x will stop shippingoÂ Â Â March 31, 2009: Technical support will no longer be available for standalone Anti-Spyware for SMB 3.x oÂ Â Â October 31, 2009: Stop all product services; pattern file and engine updates will no longer be supported for standalone Anti-Spyware for SMB 3.x Â·Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â What to sell instead: oÂ Â Â Recommend Trend Micro Worry-Free Security Solutions, which have integrated AntiSpyware.oÂ Â Â

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Written by bardissi on October 26th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Windows 2000 and Anti-Virus and Computer Security and Trend Micro and Student Computing and Network Infrastructure and Windows XP and Business Computer Support and Home Computer Support and Non-Profit Technology and Windows Vista.