Barracuda XT, Barracuda, Barracuda Green, DiamondMax and other desktop SATA and IDE drives

[TimB]

I currently have 4 1TB ES.2 (ST31000340NS) drives connected to a 3ware RAID card. They have the SN04 firmware on them, but 3ware recommend[1] a firmware of AN05 or newer. I'm unsure as to whether AN05 is newer than SN04 - the 05 would suggest yes, but what's the difference between SN and AN?

I've tried asking Seagate support but nobody is answering, so I was hoping someone else might be able to help me decipher the firmware numbers.

Cheers guys,

Tim.

[1] - http://www.3ware.com/KB/article.aspx?id=15385

[TimB]

I got a response from support. They've provided me with a download of the SN05 firmware. No explanation of AN versus SN naming, but at least I have the right thing now.

[TomSE7EN]

Hi Tim,

could you provide me the SN05 download link ? Got a 3ware 9650SE and tried the AN05 firmware with no luck, it seems it's for another hw revision of this drive.

tia

bye

tom

[TimB]

Since posting this I have discovered that the SN05 firmware doesn't solve my problem. I decided to try the AN05 firmware anyway and it's solved my problem.

What drive do you have? If the AN05 firmware doesn't work then maybe the SN05 won't either. Be careful you don't kill your drives.

The best way to get the right firmware is to contact Seagate support and they'll send you a link to one. If you still want the SN05 firmware leave me an email address and I'll send it to you.

What problem are you seeing by the way? It took more than just the firmware to fix my issues.

Tim.

[TomSE7EN]

Got two ST31000340NS drives here. AN05 isn't flashable on SN04drives. The prob here is several errors in the XP event log:

Source: 3waredrv

CMD: 0x4D
Sense:  Stat=0x2 Err=0x101 Slen=18
Packet: ReqId=121 Unit=1 Len=4
FW: AEN 0x101: opcode=0x4D

CMD: 0x4D
Sense:  Stat=0x2 Err=0x101 Slen=18
Packet: ReqId=152 Unit=1 Len=4
FW: AEN 0x101: opcode=0x4D

CMD: 0x4D
Sense:  Stat=0x2 Err=0x101 Slen=18
Packet: ReqId=202 Unit=1 Len=4
FW: AEN 0x101: opcode=0x4D

They are reported by the driver although I don't have any probs with performance or data integrity. For me it seems the driver/controller is not always able to comunicate with the drives.

These errors are not always there, only from time to time. Because of this I want to try the SN05 firmware. If this version wouldn't be for my drive I won't be able to flash it. And at last: If you send me the link via private mail it would be a lot faster (I won't make you responsible for anything in cause of trouble).

bye

tom

Message Edited by TomSE7EN on 06-15-2008 05:55 AM

[TimB]

The AN05 is flashable on to SN04 drives - I did it.

Have you got 3DM installed? If you have, go to Information, Controller Details and Download Error Log. This will let you know what the controller thinks is going on. I'm not using Windows, so I'm not familiar with the output of the driver.

For me the problem with the SN04 drives was Drive CRC Error messages appearing in the 3DM logs. I also got Drive Timeout messages, but these weren't related to the firmware. To fix this I had to limit the ports to 1.5 gb/s in 3DM.

I've sent you a private message with a link. Hope that helps

Tim.

[TomSE7EN]

3DM is installed but the funny thing is: It doesn't report any errors. In the downloaded "Error Log" are no error messages either.

FW SN04 to AN05: As noted in PM: Maybe you got the right S/N.

bye

tom

[TimB]

---

TimB wrote:
I got a response from support. They've provided me with a download of the SN05 firmware. No explanation of AN versus SN naming, but at least I have the right thing now.

---

Just to get back to the differences between the AN05 firmware (which works flawlessly for me) and the SN05 firmware (which produces a bunch of Cable CRC Errors), I finally got a reply from Seagate support.

"Seagate has not released the notes on the differences on all of the differences between the two firmwares."

That doesn't fill me with confidence... you'd expect Seagate support might have knowledge of what goes in to their firmwares...

Tim.

[TomSE7EN]

---

TimB wrote:

---

TimB wrote:
I got a response from support. They've provided me with a download of the SN05 firmware. No explanation of AN versus SN naming, but at least I have the right thing now.

---

Just to get back to the differences between the AN05 firmware (which works flawlessly for me) and the SN05 firmware (which produces a bunch of Cable CRC Errors), I finally got a reply from Seagate support.

"Seagate has not released the notes on the differences on all of the differences between the two firmwares."

That doesn't fill me with confidence... you'd expect Seagate support might have knowledge of what goes in to their firmwares...

Tim.

---

Yep, with AN05 there are no more sense errors in the event log until now but I have to wait...

LOL, maybe the errors in the former firmware was so hard, they won't post any differences because publishing it would hurt their reputation ??

P.S.: Thanks for all the ZIP

bye

tom

[ptr727]

I am having similar problems but with an Adaptec 5805 controller and 4 x 1TB drives in RAID10.

I got lots of device reset errors from the Adaptec controller reported in the NT logs.

Reported the problem to Adaptec, and they told me the controller is getting CRC errors from the drives.

Adaptec told me to get the AN05 firmware update from Seagate.

Seagate gave me the SN05 and AN05 firmware, and told me to first update SN05 then AN05, the agent claims the fixes were not additive.

After the update the errors are much less, but not 100% gone.

I've had 3 controller reset events since the AN05 update.

Seagate says AN05 is latest.

Adaptec says the controller logs show no problems, but admit to NT eventlog entries.

Problem unresolved.