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

[mlm38grk]

I just received my fourth ST2000DM001 drive. After briefly googling I realized I would need to upgrade the drive's firmware to CC4H in order to get rid of that weird "chirping" noise. Firmware that comes with my new drive is CC4C.

My sole computer is a Lenovo ThinkPad W520 and I use all my 3.5" drives only as storage in an eSATA external hard drive enclosure with SiliconImage's Sil3132 eSATA controller. As such hardware setup. I am very much anxious if I am able to firmware-upgrade my new ST2000DM001 safely and successfully.

A few questions......
1. Aside Seagate's official reservation, in practice has it been proven possible to upgrade firmware of Seagate's recent 3.5" drives such ST2000DM001 when connected via eSATA interface?

2. If the above is possible, what should I do at end of firware upgrade when I am prompted with message "Press any key to cycle the power"? Will powering off both my ThinkPad W520 laptop and then eSATA HDD enclosure do the trick?

3. This is a newbie question......For unformatted brand new drive, should I first format the drive then performance firmware upgrade or vice versa?

Thanks in advance!

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OS: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1

[CyberKat]

Hello,

I just done the firmware upgrade on my ST3000DM001 HDDs via the Lenovo W520 eSATA port.

So I can confirm you it works !

I did so using the ISO image burn to a CD and booting from it.

Regarding your questions :

2 -> Power off the W520, then power off the enclosure.

3 -> No need to format the drive before the firmware upgrade.

Regards

[mlm38grk]

Thank you very much for the positive confirmation, CyberKat

Wow I am very excited by the possibily of using my ThinkPad W520 to flash my next new Seagate HDD.

May I ask what eSATA controller does your HDD enclosure use? As I said mine uses SiliconImage's Sil3132 eSATA controller.

Many thanks!