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

[mfmaricle]

I found 2 pages at Dell's website that provide firmware updates for some recent Seagate drives with clicking.  Bothshow they were released 12/2/2009.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R250679&Syst...

Firmware 4SDM1 or 5SDM1 fixes clicking noise on Seagate 2.5" 7200RPM HDD's Model #'s:

160G - ST9160412AS DP/N J423T
250G - ST9250410AS DP/N K556T
320G - ST9320423AS DP/N F729T

500G - ST9500420AS DP/N G629T

and:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R250352&Syst...

Firmware 4SDM1 or 5SDM1 fixes clicking noise on Seagate 2.5" 7200RPM HDD's Model #'s:

80G - ST980412ASG DP/N FC63Y
160G - ST9160412ASG DP/N C384R
250G - ST9250410ASG DP/N C385R
320G - ST9320423ASG DP/N C386R
500G- ST9500420ASG DP/N D111N

However, I tried the first one and it would not install on a retail ST9500420AS with firmware 2SDM1.  The installer indicated that it found a good model number, but did not find a good firmware version.  So the drive was unchanged.

[fzabkar]

Something is very strange about those two firmware distributions.

I downloaded them both and extracted the individual files. I then compared the ASG and AS firmware image files (*.LOD) and found that they were identical, bit-for-bit. In fact ALL the files in each distribution were exactly the same, even the CD ISOs.

See the CRC values in these Winzip screenshots:

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/Dell_AS_ASG_FW.jpg

BTW, I used the FC /B command in DOS to compare the files.

[haxxorboi]

I'm happy you're having issues as well, I was worried it might just be me. I'm using a ST9500420ASG (RMA'd from a ST9500420AS) in a Dell E6400. I've tried flashing the firmware using a CD and bootable USB, trying SATA mode as both AHCI and ATA, all of which result in the error you get.

I've been posting on the  Dell community forum to try to get answers but I'm getting very little in the way of help: http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19248285.aspx?PageIndex=4

From what I've been able to figure out though it's trying to match the Dell Part Number (DP/N) which obviously a straight Seagate drive (non-oem) is not going to have. This whole scenario is ridiculous...

SEAGATE PLEASE RELEASE A FIRMWARE UPDATE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!! MULTIPLE OEMS HAVE ISSUES AND OBVIOUSLY UPDATING THE FIRMWARE FIXES THE ISSUES!!!

TIME TO TAKE YOUR MEDICINE FOR A FAULTY PRODUCT AND OWN UP TO IT!

[seagull2]

I tried the R250679.exe and it would not install on a oem ST9500420AS with firmware 2SDM1 which i bought for my MSI Notebook. 

The dell installer indicated that it found a good model number, but because of serial number i think it did not find a good firmware version. 

So i add the files to my bootable media and run the " FDLH -m HOLLIDAY -f 0005SDM1.LOD -i ST9500420AS -b -v " command in dos.

Then the utility autoscaned and updated the 5SDM1 firmware succesfully.

[haxxorboi]

Seagull, you kick serious **bleep** my friend!! After months of agonizing waiting and days of painful attempts to find the correct way to force switches you come to my rescue! Thank you very much! Firmware updated to 0005SDM1 and no clicks for over 3 hours!

Kudo to you!

[fzabkar]

seagull2, you wrote that "I add the files to my bootable media and run the "'FDLH -m HOLLIDAY -f 0005SDM1.LOD -i ST9500420AS -b -v' command in dos".

I was going to suggest a very similar approach except that I had two questions that first needed to be answered:

(1) How did you know which of the two *.LOD files were the correct ones? The flash.bat file alludes to two model series -- Momentus 7200.4 and 7200 FDE.2.

(2) Since the AS and ASG distributions consisted of identical files, how could you be sure that there had been no mixup?

AFAICS, there is no need to modify the original bootable media. The flash.bat executable terminates at the DOS command prompt, whether or not the first update attempt succeeds. You could just type your modified command line immediately after the first failure.

BTW, here is the documentation that I was able to extract from the FDLH executable after unpacking it with UPX:

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/FDLH_usage.txt

UPX: the Ultimate Packer for eXecutables:

http://upx.sourceforge.net/

One thing I would have done before upgrading the firmware would have been to run SeaTools for Windows. SeaTools captures the 512-bytes returned by the drive in response to an Identify Device command and saves them in a *.ATA file, where * = drive serial number.

After the upgrade, I would have run SeaTools again, and then compared the two files in a CMD window, as follows:

fc /b original.ATA updated.ATA

The ATA-8 command specification describes the meanings of each word in the Identify Device information block.

AT Attachment 8 - ATA/ATAPI Command Set:

http://www.t13.org/Documents/UploadedDocuments/docs2007/D1699r4a-ATA8-ACS.pdf

Message Edited by fzabkar on 08-12-2009 11:33 AM

[haxxorboi]

I did use the actual bootable CD to do my flash because I couldn't boot into a cmd with USB recognition so I just used what they gave me after I realized it was actually there

If I recall the Dell notes there was mention of "Don't worry if you get an error message from FreeDOS, just click OK" so I assume that is the environment they're using with the boot disk.

I have 0005SDM1 running, no clicking or anything so far. SeaTools reports the firmware with no issues and running both Long Generic and Self Tests complete fine. HDTach gives a average read of about 81MB/s with a burst of about 173 MB/s.

I'll report back when some other tests finish if I remember.

[shawnbd]

hi fzabkar for your first question  if you old firmware 

0001SDM1,atfer is 0005SDM1

0002SDM1 atfer is 0005SDM1

0003SDM1 atfer is 0004SDM1

this is information come from the one atfer upgaded,and i has tested 2 firmware 0004SDM1 and 0005SDM1 , both after upgrade useing seatools in dos done long test.

and my ST9500420ASG is apple oem come with firmware 0006APM2,now is 0005SDM1,and i tried Lenovo firmware 0003LVM1 before,  but i think if the disk PN is same means the hardware is same,

second question both AS and ASG lod file CRC32 is same ,so is no difference

and thank you for you info http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/FDLH_usage.txt  is useful for me and have you figure out what means command -h ,becaouse is key for which firmare is need to upload .

i have a question after you upgrade would you use the software speedfan http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php to check S.M.A.R.T information from DISK,

Because of i found my is (Hardware ECC Recovered ) is huge

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/2608/33790339.jpg

[fzabkar]

Sorry, option -h is a mystery. :-(

The CFS file obviously contains the allowable combinations of firmware version and model number, but in an encrypted format. :-(

I've looked at your Speedfan output, but IMHO the author's interpretation of the SMART data is not very clear.

For example, a realloacted sector count of 10 is not serious, but would be something that I would watch on a regular basis.

The UDMA CRC error count of 739 is also something I would check. Windows XP, for example, will switch a drive from DMA mode to PIO mode if it encounters 6 DMA timeout errors.

The Read Error Rate and Hardware ECC Recovered raw values are sector counts, not error counts. Similarly, the Seek Error Rate is not an error count.

See the following URLs for an explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk.M.A.R.T.#Seagate_raw_Seek_Error_Rate_attribute

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk.M.A.R.T.#Raw_Read_Error_Rate

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&message.id=8700

Speedfan's author does not appear to understand that SMART data are 48-bit values rather than 32-bit. I'd use HDDScan or HD Sentinel instead.

AFAICT, the "airflow temperature" is also being interpreted incorrectly. I believe the actual temperature may be 54C, not 46C.

Here are some other SMART diagnostic and benchmarking tools.

HD Sentinel (DOS / Windows/Linux):

http://www.hdsentinel.com/

HDDScan for Windows:

http://hddscan.com/

HD Tune:

http://www.hdtune.com/download.html

CrystalDiskMark:

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html

smartmontools (Linux/Windows):

http://sourceforge.net/projects/smartmontools/files/

http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/wiki/Download

See this article for SMART info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

[shawnbd]

Thank you very much,

I'm studing at it.