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

[portomomo]

Update. During the past days I had the time to update the Firmware of the 2 new 2TB ST2000DM001 disks running in a NAS.

Time consuming (open NAS, unscrew disk, open PC, start windows, download utility, run utility... X 2) but ok, the update succeeded.

After putting togheter the NAS and putting it back to work and after 1 day of normal use I can say that:

The "chirp" is now more like a louder "click".

The LOAD_CYCLE_COUNT is raising as before the update (+/- 40 cycles per hour).

In conclusion the update is more a cosmetic patch than a real solution.

Other manufacturers (like WD -  no affiliation, I 've always used Hitachi or Seagate HDD, Samsung's were failing too soon) had the same issues with their "green" drives and where forced to release a software tool (WDIDLE3) to manually set the parking frequence of the heads.

Will seagate do something similar?

I will suggest to keep this thread open to hear more comments from other users.

[awwknee]

My warranty shows that my drive is a STBD2000101 but the Seagate drive detect tool shows that it is ST2000DM001 rev CC4C. Does this firmware update for the STBD series as well? I tried applying the firmware but it says "FAIL". I would really like to fix the chirp that the hard drive makes. If it doesn't get fixed, I will just return the drive.

[Cantbecanit]

@ Port

Not aimed at you directly, but now people can see why I was asking for patience, if this has now made a chirp into a click I would say that's a step backwards, but be aware the constant user demanding that went on causes a rush job and a rush job is never a good job ime, call Alan and make him aware of your troubles incase he doesn't see this, it is important because if yours are now worse then other's are likely to face the same result.

[cooltempo]

Ok so my drives are all updated as I previously stated. I haven't heard a much noise from them to be honest, just a few mild clicks. Certainly bearable. The main problem is the Load Cycle Count is still rapidly rising. I would have to agree that this is a cosmetic patch and hasn't actually solved the problem. I got about 6000 cycles in the days following the upgrade!

And 'Can't' .... Let's not get into back into this. Seagate should never have shipped the drives in this state in the first place. 'User demanding' just doesn't come into this at all. Ultimately people expect the product they buy to work, with no loud clicks and bangs and without any detrimental side effects. Even reasonably inexperienced consumers know there is a problem.

Being patient (on your advice or not) is not the consumers responsibility. It is the manufacturer's responsibility to ensure that the product they are selling is not faulty. I'm not convinced that Seagate rushed out an update due to our demands but more likely to cover up a serious issue in these drives.

[portomomo]

@ awwknee: maybe it's better to post you question in the firmware thread.

@Cooltempo: I completely agree with you . "problematic" hardware should be an issue for the manufacturer

and not for the customer.

Seagate was buying Lacie a few weeks ago (don't now if they succeeded), a step forward becoming the largest storage solution

provider on the globe. They will never admit any hardware problems at this stage of the game.

(interestingly I've had a lot of overheating issues in the past with lacie enclosures shipping maxtor disk )

As the "chirp" issue is mostly solved, I would suggest starting a new discussion on the LOAD CYCLE COUNT issue.

[Agent24]

---

portomomo wrote:

(interestingly I've had a lot of overheating issues in the past with lacie enclosures shipping maxtor disk )

---

Yeah, Maxtor drives have always run hot - bad idea to stuff them in an external case, or poorly-ventilated machine, for that matter.

[Cantbecanit]

@ Port

There's no getting into anything bud, and as I stated it wasn't directly directed at you, if you remember the screaming that was going on I said be patient because if you force someone to quick fix thats what you get, a quick fix,

Now, if any of you think for one moment Seagate made these drives knowing they weren't 100% and then put them on sale you are deluded, the fault has come about for some not everybody since,

I fully understand how you feel about it and I'd be the same if I had one doing it, but creating mob rule sentiment on the site isn't helping one bit, and from my understanding this problem is not a large one in the league of things, % wise of the drives sold and the drives returning is very very small, I would say there are some sore of compatability problems, but that could simply be something attached to the PC by USB etc causing interupts on the drive, where another user won't have the device causing it, there are many reason's why and maybe, nailing them is the hard part,

Now, I hope you do get this sorted, and I'm about finished anyway, I had a moment of reality last week and think my life would be better spent not reading this soirt of thing anymore, as nobody said thx for the assistance and some got right in my face when all I was trying to do was help I find myself thinking I don't get these problems and if people can't be nice about it then if they get them why should I care,

Again that's not at you Port that's purely how I feel right now, I've had enough of it, if I want to depress myself I'll go buy a Murdoch owned newspaper and read that instead.

All the best mate and lets hope it gets fully sorted.

[portomomo]

@ Cant, please stay on topic.

[ben777]

I am considering rebuying this drive now that the FW release has come out. But I am wondering if any of the storage companies have announced new 3TB drives coming out as the only ones (the Barracuda and WD Green) I can find at a reasonable price all have the same high load cycle count issue. My 3TB Caviar Green is already above 305,000 LCCs after 140 days and a 2TB Green I bought for storage is approaching 40,000 after only 19 days. Still not sure if these are things I should be concerned about but I read somewhere that 300,000 was the safe limit for these drives and I got to that in no time so I am also concerned for my warranty.

I'll take another few weeks to save up a little more cash then decide whether to go for the Barracuda, update the FW and live with the high LCC or wait for new drives to come out that don't have this issue.

Thanks to Cant and Alan for helping to get the chirping noise some attention at Seagate and hopefully solved with the FW update.

[spcxxx]

CLICKS - this is good step forward, despite unnecessary by my opinion -> for example HITACHI makes `chirp sound` too, but just once a day when drive is powered on!

So in case SEAGATE disables APM like Hitachi did, i think noone matters about this `chirp`

PARK CYCLE COUNT - i realised, that `quiet hdd` proggy somehow has problem with more harddrives attached - so it was unreliable....

After using HDPARM to disable APM for all drives at startup the count rises just at powering on...

SO I'M DEFFINITELY KEEPING  this awesome hardrive!!!

(but it will be great to have oportunity to disable APM FOREVER)

About WAITING for new FW - there is always risk of loosing of data, so I personaly deny to update without ALL data COMPLETELY backed up!!!

(and we are talking about 3TB here)

So it is very inconvenient to wait for Seagate to solve issues, it is not just about PATIENCE....