My 1.5 TB drive worked for around 6 months now, then suddenly disappeared from both windows and BIOS (its a secondary drive so I can still boot windows).
Here's the info on the sticker:
s/n 9VS09W5S
model st31500341as
p/n 9ju138 - 300
firmware sd17
date code 09137
site code tk
I know that there are many threads as well as stickys related to this issue, but mine is different because seagate tech support claims that my firmware isn't a version that needs upgrading.
After it died I looked online and found the huge amount of firmware issues people have been seeing and assumed mine was similar. When I contacted seagate tech support they ran my serial number through their checker ( https://apps1.seagate.com/rms_af_srl_chk/ ) and determined that my drive was not one of the affected drives. Specifically, the "lock up and become invisible to BIOS and OS" issue only is something that they recognize happens for firmware SD15 and earlier. However, when I looked on these forums after that conversation, I see plenty of people complaining about problems with SD17 firmware, and saying how they fixed the problem with a firmware update and the help of seagate support. The difference taht I can see is that most people with SD17 firmware had their drives visible, so they were able to run the firmware update at home.
Since my s/n doesn't appear in their list, they aren't offering to let me send it to the i365 recovery lab to update the firmware(since apparently my firmware version doesn't cause this issue and supposedly it wouldn't fix it). However, since it isn't visible to BIOS I can't update the firmware myself, which is the standard solution for the normal errors with my firmware version. The support person who I talked to was implying that since my firmware version isn't on their list of ones that can lock up, that perhaps my drive died for unrelated reasons.
Somehow I'm not convinced. Not only are there a variety of bugs officially recognized by seagate for my firmware as well as others, but I can find other posts in this forum and other of people having the same issue as me, where tech support finds a serial number not on their list, and won't let an owner send it in to get un-frozen without paying.
Is there a good way to convince seagate support that I should be allowed to send it to i365 for a firmware update? Or, are there tips on how to get the drive visible to BIOS again so I can try to update the firmware myself?
I am pretty frustrated because
1. Judging by the past, there's a very high chance that this is a firmware issue whether or not they want to admit it, and I know they can update the firmware very easily.
2. I'm within biking distance of the i365 lab in Santa Clara so I could get the drive there very quickly if they will let me get it fixed.
and of course
3. I have 500gb of data that I know is sitting on that drive perfectly intact, but inaccesible.
