sfera: First was completely DOA (doesn't spin up), the second reported a S.M.A.R.T. event in the BIOS startup and then the array manager in 'doze, the third has been pausing intermittently over the past day or two and when I did a sector scan the array manager popped up to tell me it's fucked.
I dunno if it's worth complaining to Seagate to try to get a full refund and then go with another brand/model. Seems to be just too risky to continue with this model.