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

[Gigs]

I've been trying to glean as much as I can from all these thousands of posts about firmware, bricking, and problems with current Seagate drives, without a lot of luck.

I just have a simple question.

Is it safe to build a RAID using  ST31000340NS  ES.2 drives right now?

If I order them and they come with the older firmware, should I upgrade them, or is it safer to not upgrade them?

[superlgn · Accepted solution]

Is it safe? Who is the authoritative answer for that question? I guess you can tell us that... 2 years from now.

All I can tell you is what my experiences is.. ~8 month old server at work with 4 ST31000340NS drives, no problems before or after flashing (so far). I'll also add that every server I've quoted in the last month has used WDC RE3 drives and every drive I've purchased for my home machine have been WDC WD1001FALS, the first of which was to replace a failed ST31000340AS no less.

I think the only way you're going to know if it's really safe is to wait it out, and keep reading those thousands of posts.

If you do order the drives and they come with old firmware, they should be flashed.

[ByrneIT]

It depends on how much you value your data and time.

I would not use Seagate drives at this time, having had 23 of the last 26 I bought fail.

[Grim0x]

My honest from the heart reply...

GO WITH MAXTOR.